Reality Check
by BookDragon
Summary: Sequel to DayDreams! Ann is on a new adventure, except in the anime's WORLD! MORE CHAOS! Complete
1. Default Chapter

BookDragon: "Sorry for the look wait guys… I had to take a break because my writing was fading and I had to try and finish another story I was writing.

Bill: "It has only one chapter left so she thinks she can start this one safely."

BookDragon: "Enjoy it guys! YOU ROCK!!!

Reality Check

Chapter 1: Thick as Thieves

            Black scuffed up sneakers hit the cement sidewalk loudly; brown puffy hair flew in many directions, loud breathing echoed throughout the morning air. She ran at full speed, not caring that it was too early for school, she was sick of sitting around at home. She got to the nearest bench in the front of the building with the ending words 'school', she collapsed into it. It took her an hour of jogging and running to get there but it was worth it in her mind. She put her book bag on her lap and closed her brown eyes and forced herself to daydream. She took this time out everyday to sit and think, to take her mind away, just to feel… normal again. Ever since her return she didn't feel like her old self, she felt different from every one else. Except her that had been there with her, in Egypt, a year ago. They had changed much like her, her sister hadn't changed that much, probably because she didn't know Bill has much as they did, but small things showed it. The rest of them just missed Bill. It was thinking of this when she felt a tap on her shoulder and her eyes opened to two boys with brown hair and brown eyes smiled at her. She flinched in surprise at seeing them but returned their grin, they laughed at one another. They sat down on the bench with her and she asked them the question that came to mind at there presence.

"Brian? Kyle? What are you doing here?" Brian, slightly taller that Kyle with a shade of darker brown looked at her jokingly and some how happy to see her.

"We came early, so you wouldn't get yelled at by the principal by yourself today…"

"Every funny…" This was true, the school's principal always had a problem with students arriving before he did, which always amused her because of the look on his face every morning. She mimicked the huge purple bags and horse voice.

"What are YOU doing here so early…?" They immediately busted out laughing, including Ann who could never really keep a straight face at her jokes. They laughed on and off that morning, their conversation eventually lead to some of the stuff Bill had said and pulled off when he was here. It was good fun until the principal showed up with his huge dark purple bags under his old eyes, he glared at them for being so early, they glared back because it was the kid thing to do. His clammy hands unlocked the door and let them in, they walked in with out a word and decided to get to their class rooms to wait out side the door for their teachers. Ann waved at them and went to her class room and at leaning on the wall with her bag on the floor waiting for her teacher to arrive. A round little woman came hurrying down the hall shortly after her and opened the door after fumbling with the key for a few minutes, they smiled at one another as Ann took her seat and waited for the rest of the student body to show up. Her classmates filled their seats in the ten minutes she was tapping her pen in total boredom, when everyone was settled but still talking the announcements came on.

"Students, I have an announcement, would students PLEASE come at decent hours of the morning, we know your eager to learn but please come a decent hours." Ann glared at the speaker, very annoyed. She decided them to come an hour early instead of the usual 30 minutes just to get back at him. The announcements were brief and class started. The rest of the day flashed by and then she found herself, her head on the window, watching trees and cars go by and a yellow school bus. That was how every day was, and she guessed would be. She got lost in her own thoughts looking out the vibrating window, making her vision blurry. A body sat next to her and tapped her on the shoulder; she ignored it and took it as a kid trying to annoy her.  The tapping came again, and she continued to ignore it, when finally she was hit on the shoulder. She swung and looked at the kid very annoyed but became surprised at what she saw. A brown haired kid with matted hair and brown oak tree eyes stared back at her with and grin on his face. He wore a blue trench coat with one hole in the sleeve, very small but looked like it was growing, and blue jeans with white Nike sneakers.

"Hi Ann…"

"BILL?!?! What? How did you get here?" She finally croaked out of her lodged throat, in deep surprise and happiness. She immediately hugged him.

"ANN… Too hard… can't breathe…" She let go off him quickly and Bill swallowed a huge breath.

"Sorry… I just haven't seen you in what feels like forever… what are you doing here?" Bill's face became twisted with different expressions that Ann couldn't recognize.

"Er… well… umm…"  A voice from the next seat came into her ears loudly. 

"Bill, Kaiba says he's ready… hi Ann." Ann looked up at a kid not much older that her, pale brown eyes and a small smile with small pale checks covered in some black soot and white hair spanning out in all directions uncontrollability. Ann's eyes widened in amazement and partly because she had been fond of the anime characters, even though something didn't exactly work that well.

"Bakura? Bill what going on here…" Bill looked at her calmly and spoke like nothing new was happening.

"Kaiba said he needed a power supply for his new computer program and it makes things easier to come here with it…" Ann looked at him confused.

"Power supply?" Kaiba came down the small line in the middle of the bus, his hair smoking a little and his face completely black, Bill and Bakura tried to swallow their laughter at the sight him, Ann gulped down her laughter with much difficultly at the small ember trying hard to go alight in his hair. Kaiba looked at them with a twisted look of anger on his face and he yelled at Bill. 

"BILL! DO I LOOK LIKE A MACANIC??!?!?!?!? YOU TAKE OUT THE ENGINE!" Ann looked around quickly at the sudden dismay at the words that just came out of his mouth, and looked around franticly at every other student that was now probably looking in wonderment, no one did. Everyone just sat and talked about stupid things, boys, school papers, jokes, and people they hated, and drove on like this wasn't happening. Then the words sunk into her mind.

"Engine? What engine?" Bakura looked at her sheepishly and disappeared out of her sight behind the bus seat for cover as she turned to Bill confused. Bill looked at her normally and whispered to her like an everyday thing.

"We need a bus engine for the computer to work…" Ann looked at him aghast.

"WHAT?!?!? YOU CAN'T TAKE THE BUS ENGINE! IT'S BUS COMPAINES PROBERTY!" Everyone looked at her a moment, surprised at the out burst, but with in seconds they were mumbling about how strange she was and taking about life again. Bill looked at her through haft closed eyes and stood up and started toward the front of the bus while talking to Kaiba.

"You're going to have to guide me you know, I have no clue how this thing works…"

"How the hell should I know? I'm NO MACANIC!" Kaiba yelled, his face turning a dark red. Bill rolled his eye and trudged toward the front of the bus he snapped his fingers and walked through the window like it was completely normal. Ann's mouth hung open. Bill casually walked on the top of the yellow hood and placed both of his feet on the bumper of the bus. His hair ruffled in the wind has he dug his fingers and tried with all his might to lift the hood. Bakura and Kaiba sweetdropped at Bill's face, red and sweating, trying to pry the yellow metal upward. Ann's face was chalk white, eyes switching her red faced friend and to the white haired woman humming carelessly and driving easily that didn't even see him. 

"Make a crowbar you idiot!" Kaiba showed up to him. Bill immediately stopped and removed his fingers to snap them while saying.

"I knew that."  With a snap of his fingers a large crowbar landed in his palm lightly and he immediately dug it into the black crack were his fingers had been before, and was about to pushed on it when Ann whispered to Bakura still sitting behind her.

"Shouldn't he STOP the bus first? So we don't have to crash?" Kaiba over heard her comment.

"HEY BILL you're forgetting something!"

"What?" Kaiba pointed to the bus driver.

"Oh." Bill sighed and immediately climbed up and the golden hood, leaving the crowbar stuck in the bus hood, and walked right up to the side of the window she was and knelled until eye-to-eye with her.

"You better hold on to something…" Bakura said behind the bus seat to Ann in a very serious tone. Ann couldn't believe what he did next. Bill snapped his fingers and then grabbed the sides of his mouth, sticks out his tongue, and made the strangest sound Ann ever heard to go with his messed up face.  A high pitch scream came from the surprised bus driver and she slammed the brakes. Everyone flew forward, people screamed and shouted as they hit the green seat in front of them or the floor as the bus came to a squealing halt. Ann found herself on the black floor and breathing quickly as she looked up at Bakura looking down at her.

"I told you to hang on to something…" She gave him a look and slowly sat up. Rubbing her head from a dull pain she heard a frail old voice.

"Everyone off the bus NOW!" Startled and wide-eyed everyone scrabbled off the bus quickly, some kids loudly asking, "Can we do it again?" Ann was one of the last people off the bus, Bakura and Kaiba in front of her so everyone saw a large gap instead of the two boys. Confused a little she noted to ask questions later. Off the bus and onto coal black pavement with the thick oak trees all around and only the winding road ahead the kids waited as the bus driver called another bus, not at all calm, but trembling all over, and taking about a kid making faces. They had to ask her three times what she was saying because of how fast she was speaking in her shrilled voice. During those ten minutes Ann watched Bill struggle to open the hood that is until Kaiba groaned and climbed back into the bus and press a red button on the dashboard. The moment it was touched Bill was sent fumbling up with the hood and landed onto the roof, denting it with an outline of a body. Ann flinched at the collision, and tried to image how much pain he was in. Dazed, he climbed back down off the bus, wobbled back to the hood and duck his head in. She wasn't exactly sure what he was doing, probably studying the parts of the machine, something Bill had been famous for in the group before their trip. 

"Which wire do I cut?" 

"All of them…" Kaiba replied, twiddling a pen that had fallen from one of the many different color back packs that had fallen on the floor while leaning on the bright yellow side facing everyone. Ann heard a faint snap echo and a couple seconds after a sharp cutting sound. Suddenly a loud boom sounded, smoke poured over the side of the open hood as Bill raised his face, totally black. 

"Except the red one." Kaiba ended a small smile on his face. Bill rolled his eyes and his face disappeared again under the hood. After a few more minutes of clinking sound Bill emerged, wiping his hands with a new cloth.

"Well, I've done enough tinkering… are you guys ready?" Bakura and Kaiba looked at each other.

"Don't look at me; it's your job…" Bakura sighed at him.

Ann stopped look at the three of them.

"Ready for what?" Instead of answering they started to huddle around the hood. Ann followed with a look of terror at what was being plotted. Bill took a deep breath and closed his eyes, his thumb and middle finger touching ready to snap. Humming echoed from deep in his throat. Everyone paused.

"What's going on?" His fingers snapped and a huge crane appeared out of air again, like the crowbar, except a _lot_ bigger. Bill still had his eyes tightly shut as his hand straight out in front of him move down. The crane mimicked his movement into the hood, at the very same moment his peachy hand moved. He then made a movement like tying an invisible bow around a present; a chain wrapped itself around the disconnected engine like a row. Then Bill raised his hand and brought it down, and so the engine sat on the ground right at his feet. Ann was blinking and rubbing at her eyes, and glancing at Kaiba's face of impatience. Bill's peachy hands moved in a fast motion and the crane disappeared in a blip and a cart appeared right in its place. Then very slowly he lifted his hands, sweating starting to pour from his red face, and moved the engine onto the cart. After that he opened his eyes and fell down onto the road sitting.

"That was very good." Bakura said warmly and took a hold of the handle of the cart.

"Thanks." Bill puffed, exhausted and a deep pink color. Kaiba took the huge handle too and looked at Bakura.

"Now it's your turn…" Bakura looked at him sadly, then to Bill in pleading manner, but to find he was shaking his head, clearly tired out. Bakura frowned.

 "Alright, Alright." And with that, he took a hold of the ring that Ann knew was under his sweater and moved his hands into a circular motion in front of them. Ann immediately knew he was calling on an entry into the Shadow Realm by the way his arm moved and the soft glowing of the ring under his clothes. A huge vertical hole slowly appeared in front of them as his arm moments increased until it was clear to the small group. Bakura stopped moving his arm and dropped his hand from the ring, looking deeply disturbed and the look in his eyes like he never wanted to do that again. Bill patted him on the back.

"That was very good." Bill said smiling at him. Bakura laughed.

"Yes, yes, now let's GO!" Kaiba complained walking into the hole with the cart rolling slowly. Ann looked at them leaving, thinking they were leaving her behind again, that is until Bill turned around at her.

"Hey come on! Don't slow us down!" Ann looked at the hole uncertainly. Bill sighed knowing what she was thinking.

"I'll have you back at your house by dinner time, it'll be fine." Ann smiled.

"Well… alright, as long as my parents don't freak…much." She walked into the hole slowly and watched the hole shut behind her. With that step she knew things were changing again… hopefully for the better.

Book Dragon: "Well, tell me how you liked it!!!

Bill: "In other words review it!"               


	2. Cabin in the Middle of Nowhere

BookDragon: "Hey thanks for the reviews guys!"

Bill: "Yeah, she really though no one who review it after two days, such little faith."

BookDragon: "Thanks a lot Bill…" 

Bill: "She doesn't own Yu-gi-oh, on with the chapter!"

Chapter 2: Log Cabin in the Middle of No Where

The small wheels of the long cart squeaked annoyingly as Kaiba and Bakura pulled continuously through the misty black-purple sky and never ending floor spread wide in all directions. She felt a bit trapped as she scanned the horizon for an exit or the way they had entered but found only the darkness, which wasn't comforting at all.

"Why haven't you visited?" Ann shot back to life.

"What?"

"Why haven't you visited?" Bill asked again in an annoyed tone as he wiped sweat from his forehead while pushing the large cart forward with his remaining strength. It wasn't a lot. The cart barely tugged forward even with all of them wheeling it, the engine must have weighted at least a ton. Giving him a confused look she gave a reply just as bewildered.

"How could I have? You're IN a different world, stupid." Bill rolled his eyes angrily.

"Did you at _all_ look at the bracelet I gave back to you." Ann was silent. 

"I told you, you should I have written a letter." Kaiba's voice echoed from the front in his business-like manner. Bill glared through the engine like it was transparent to where Kaiba was. 

That was why Ann could never understand how anyone in her world could actually have a crush on the guy; he was about as cuddly as a full-grown enraged dragon about fifty-feet long and just a nasty. Ann looked up to the sky and thought again. Then again, he was very sweet to his brother, Mokuba, someone he loved dearly; maybe, the other girls out there thought he'd treat them the same. She pressed on while looking at her shoes already getting tired, to looking under the cart at Bakura's white-worn shoes stepping forward in a steady pace.

Bakura was one she could understand having thousands of fan girls. One only had to take one look at the guy to find him attractive to teen girls that watched the show because he was handsome, well mannered, soft voice, beautiful dark brown eyes, yielding pale skin, and bright white glinting hair. She remembered how her sister had been saying he was cute on the plane ride back to the US, and kept nudging her like it was her boyfriend or something. 

"Are you okay?" Ann blinked again and looked at Bill.

"Yes… why do you ask?"

"You're blushing, are you thinking of a special some one…" Bill smirked at her.

"NO!" Ann replied harshly but hastily. The grin on Bill's face widened.

"Oh yes you are… whose the guy? Do I know him?" Her face turned a deeper red of anger.

"I DO NOT HAVE A CRUSH!" 

"Oh yes you do! I know him don't I? Come on tell the truth… you know I'll find out sooner or later… come one you can tell me…"

"I-"

"CAN IT BACK THERE!" Kaiba's voice lashed out and silenced the two from the subject completely.

"… Where are we going?"

"To my house." Bill answered wearily.

"Why are we going there? I thought it was Kaiba's machine…"

"It's is… he just doesn't want any of his employees to stumble across it and laugh him out of his own company for believing this "nonsense". So, naturally, he decided to stash it at my house." Ann nodded in agreement.

"That's what I'd do…" The conversation trailed off into nothingness and into the squeaking wheels and ongoing wasteland around them. Ann noticed the hairs on her arms were on end with a tiny uneasy feeling pulling at her, it was starting to scare her, but of course she won't tell. The lugging of the mechanical cargo seemed like hours with everyone puffing and sweating unusually, it was something about the air or the ground or just the place. They all seemed a bit unnerved when finally the squealing was broken.

"How are the others?" It was Bakura's voice. Ann blinked at him surprised and took this into account as odd. Anyone who was anyone that watched the show knew Bakura was shy, so whatever was eating at them all was probably more than very irritating to him.

"Their fine, Marie got her license, Kyle is just an odd as ever, Brian is trying to write some stories, and I'm just going on with live, bored as all hell. How are you guys?"

"Yugi is trying to figure out a way to ask Tea out, Joey misses Marie-" Ann gulped uneasily as this was said, "Yami is looking for the rest of the millennium items, his grandfather is still running the shop, and Pegasus is at the house." Bill said broadly.

"PEGASUS?!?!?!"

"Well, yeah…"

"How the hell…"

"Remember when you said never to pick up hitchhikers?" Bill asked.

"Yeah."

"Well… let's just say I wasn't paying attention last year when I stumbled upon a card that had Peggy's soul trapped in it and released him out of pity, he gave me a whole bunch of money, he's been hanging around the house since, and I'm doing seminars with him."

"Seminars?" She asked puzzled.

"It's a private thing… oh here we are!" Ann nodded more confused as ever and looked around into the oblivion around them.

"How can you tell…?" Bill pointed at her right arm, which had a glowing band shimmering under her long sleeve shirt.

"What the hell did you do to this thing…?" She exclaimed rolling up her sleeve to the golden band that she obtained in the dessert a year ago, no longer plain but covered in symbols and a wand, sword, and a dragon carved into it, it glowed like a flashlight on Halloween night, and stung her eyes as she looked at it.

"Yami made it so you could travel to the anime world by pressing something on the inside of the band… so thing you have to do on purpose, not by just wearing it…"

She immediately stopped wheeling the cart and flipped the thing off her arm and looked at the plain golden inside of it, plain except the triangle lightly carved into it. Feeling somewhat stupid she pressed it and held on as it started vibrating violently and started blowing air all over the place. She didn't dare drop the thing incase it would be swept away into this godforsaken place and loose their no ticket to somewhere livable, but the thing tug forcefully in her pale hands, wanting to be set free and leave them stranded to die. Then balls of light started spewing from the golden arm band like embers from a sparkler, which all collected behind them like nails to a magnet, jumping in, one by one, into something that reassembled a hole, except vertical and shinning too bright for eyes to look safely around them. It streamed on like this for a few good minutes, Bill smiling wide like a drunken fool, Bakura emotionless but brown eyes gleaming, and Kaiba, just as serious as ever. Finally the thing coughed up the very last sphere of radiance and dropped into the pool like water, and then the thing opened into a musty basement with all sorts of things on tables and cables leading everywhere. The bracelet tugged toward the doorway eagerly as Bill started clapping at her with the stupidest grin on his face with Bakura looking relieved, probably because they were finally getting out of here.

"Nice job… okay guys let's get moving!" Slowly but surely the huge object was pressed into that though the small hole, sparking at the edges, and slid into their dimension. Ann flipped the thing back on her arm carefully and helped push the thing in, stepping oddly on the cement floor as the portal behind them shut in a blip and a crackle. Ann took a look around the dusty, very common, basement that kind of looked too like a libratory but had a huge grey platform in the middle of the floor. Bill dusted himself off as Bakura wiped his forehead, Kaiba just stood there.

"Where are we?"

"Where do you think we are? Kaiba's house?" Bill said with a strong sense of sarcasm.

"This is my basement, where Kaiba hides his private stuff, help me with this." There was no need for a crane to appear this time because one was already built and standing right over the top of their heads. Bakura had to stand on the cart to reach the swaying chain and wrap it around the engine as Kaiba pressed the button to raise it up and put it down on the platform; Bill took two cables and hooked them up to the machine and walked to the circuit breaker on the side of his walk opposite of the log stairs that lead up. He flipped open the grey door that had all sorts of switches that lead up into a very cramped tunnel going up and down. Bill studied it a moment and climbed up a bit until you could only see the folds in his jeans where the back of his knees where and snapped them both somewhere.

"There we are." His muffled voice sounded through the wall, then his legs moved around a bit, stopped, and shook a bit more.

"Uh guys I think I'm stuck…" His voice cried softly through the thick wall. Kaiba put his face in his hand as Bakura ran over to him. Ann walked over to where his legs where kicking and grabbed the left one as Bakura grabbed the right.

"Pull?" Bakura asked questionably.

"Probably. Do you think we'll need butter to slip him out?" Bakura grinned at the joke and started to pull as hard as possible on the jeans as Ann immediately followed.

"OUCH!!NOT SO HARD!" They let him go to find him more stuck than ever as his legs where limp.

"Can't you just think yourself out of the wall?" Kaiba asked annoyed.

"No, I used up all my juice on moving the engine on the cart…"

"Damn… Well it looks like I was right; you should have opened it up more."

"Just shut up and get me OUT OF HERE!!!" Bill cried out pissed off but somewhat scared. Ann sighed.

"Okay on three…" She grabbed his leg again. "One…two…three!" They both pulled with everything they had downward and shook him until he wiggled free and fell on them. Ann blinked at the sudden realization that she was on the ground and someone was standing over her… it was Yugi. He hadn't changed much, his hair was as wild and messed up as ever but his clothes were darker, it was nice on him, made him look just a little taller, the puzzle swung over their faces like a swing pendant in the jumbled mess.

"What are you guys doing?" 

"Putting in the power supply in and getting Ann to visit for a change."

"Hey I didn't _know_ how the thing worked." Ann spat at Bill angrily. Bill struggled out of the mess and smoothed out his trench coat. Ann jumped off Bakura as he sat up slowly rubbing his head. Yugi smiled at them.

"It's good to see you back safely, Yami was getting worried."

"He doesn't need to be…" Kaiba said in his normal "I don't need your help" business fashion, just like him. Yugi frowned at him but shook Ann's hand happily.

"It's good to see you again, how is your sister and friends?"

"She's fine, everybody is fine."

"You will have them visit wouldn't you? Joe's dying to see Marie again…"

"H-He is? Oh well… t-that's great news… I'll get her to visit again… where's tea?"

She immediately went up stairs. Yugi blinked at her, wondering what's on her mind.

"What the matter with her?" Bill asked in the same puzzled way. Everyone shrugged and followed her upstairs, to find out. 

Bill: "To continue your story call, leave a review and press 888-please continue, that will be all."

BookDragon: "Er, just leave are view please."


	3. Is that Icecream truck speeding?

BookDragon: "Thanks for the Reviews guys!" 

Bill: "Er…yeah… I told you you should have started writing the sequel earlier!"

BookDragon: -_-u "Thanks for the support Bill…"

Bill: "She doesn't own Yu-Gi-Oh, and probably never will with her work ethic."

BookDragon: "Okay THAT'S it!" *starts dust fight*  

Chapter 3: Is that ice-cream truck speeding?

            The group emerged into a brightly lit room. Their feet were pressed hard on the oak wood floor while glancing at the refrigerator Tristin, wearing his usual brown trench coat and weird hair style, was digging through, to Joey, in a white t-shirt and regular jeans, stuffing mouthfuls of chips sitting on the couch to the left of them, Mokuba in a yellow vest and stripped long sleeve shirt, looking at Joey like he'd suddenly eat him too, and Ann at the corner of the room trying too hard not to be noticed by the blonde. Bill didn't pick this up.

"Ann! What's the rush? I still gotta introduce you to a few people-" Joey looked at her surprised and made an attempt to leap off the couch but found the chest nut coffee table conveniently in the way, and himself going over it like a ton of bricks into the tan fluffy carpet painfully while Mokuba laughed at him. Tristin glanced out at them, waved to Ann with a mouthful of food, and back into the plastic cold white chamber looking for something to eat. Joey quickly pulled himself up and looked around like an excited dog. No wonder Kaiba liked to compare him to one, she thought, he was loyal and brave and a very good friend, like a dog. His brown eyes darted across her and everyone else as his mouth slowly turned to a frown.

"Where's Marie?" Ann looked a bit insulted but shrugged it off quickly at the thought of her sister.

"She's at home. Bill picked me up on the bus." His frown grew longer, making Ann not have the heart of telling him what her sister was up to. She was currently dating another boy. The experience of last summer seemed to dim her sense of how real it had been and more like a dream to her. She met him six months after Joey and the gang left. She was passionately in love with the dark haired cutey she called him. It made Ann sick with grief at the thought of Joey and glad she wouldn't see him again. That didn't happen to plan.

"How is she?" 

"She's fine… she misses you." Ann lied guiltily, letting her stomach turn with the uneasiness from it. His face grew bright and a bit pink as he grinned warmly at her, making her stomach jolt worse.

"Tell her, I miss her too! She'll visit next time right?"

"She should…" His face beamed brighter as pride glowed from his pale skin.

"Tell her I'll see her soon…" 

"Yes, I will…" 

"What's going on brother?" A teenage girl that looked a little bit like her sister stepped into the doorway to the right of them, looking puzzled with her pale brown eyes as her reddish tan hair swept her face lightly and stretched beyond her pink collar of her shirt. She was very pretty and very much like Marie. No wonder why Joey liked her. Ann noticed Tristin immediately shut the refrigerator and Bill's gaze becoming every dreamy like and forgetting about the tour he was taking about. She could help but smirk at him, at the humorous look of pure bliss spreading across his face with each passing moment, as she stood oblivious to him, looking at Ann.

"She's a friend of Bill's…" 

"She's the one you love?" Bill started laughing immediately at her comment as Joey let out a shrilled sounding what.

"Him? In love with HER?!?!?!" Bill plummeted to the ground laughing. She fought the urge to give him a right hook as she spoke to her thought gritted teeth and red faced.

"I'm Marie's sister…I'm Ann." Her pale completion brightened in the realization at her name.

"You're Ann? Bill and Bakura told me all about you…" Ann could have fallen at that. 

"Really? I'm glad you heard of me…" She kicked the rolling body as she smiled at her.

"You are Serenity? I assume. I've heard a lot about you as well. " She blushed as Ann made an attempt to act older than she really was and shook her hand, while Bill got up slowly from the pain exploding in his ribs. He glared at Ann and smiled flakily at her as he dusted himself off to look fashionable in Serenity's presence, while Ann couldn't help a snicker as a tall blonde in tight clothing stood tall above her head with a familiar brown haired cheerleader she had meet last year. Tea wore a fluttering blue skirt in a white shirt and looked beautiful enough to make Ann understand why she was bewitching to Yugi, who was blushing in the corner of her eye. She smiled warmly at her as the blonde with purple stern eyes looked over the new comer, Ann felt like twitching under the look she was getting with nervousness. It wasn't until Serenity noticed it too and tapped her lightly to tell her who she was.

"You're Ann?" She asked disbelievingly in a plain tone, crossing her arms and tapping her black boots as her ring earrings swung.

"Yeah. She is." Bill's voice drawled bored as he took her arm quickly and started to walk  away, dragging her backwards, farther down the hallway pass the family room as the others started to spread out and do other things.

"See yea around kid…" She replied and walked from her view back into the room with Tea and Serenity, who waved warmly at her, making her feel weird to be waved at. They walked on far into the hall way of what seemed like many never ending doors in one direction. Bill started to talk like he always did when agitated.

"Mai is always like that when it comes to people I know, personally I think she hates me."

"I would be lead to believe that too… but why would she hang out here?"

"I don't know, maybe because it's free food, place quiet to hang at, and a place to crash in case of trouble. Usually." Ann sluffed off his grip on her shoulder and walked with him.

"What do you mean usually?" Bill sighed as he grabbed at the center of his shirt and quicken his pace.

"Malik has decided to visit a couple of times, haven't figured out why, Kaiba agreed to have the place on watch with cameras to catch the son of a gun." Ann looked surprised at the thought of Malik showing up, then again it would be perfectly normal for him to do something like that, it would have happened sooner or later. She sighed at the thought of it.

"Do you think he knows I'm here?" It seemed unlikely, but having the Yu-gi-oh cartoons in your own home terrorizing you was also unlikely at the time.

"Maybe. He too has a millennium item, and probably can detect something like the ripple we cause by traveling through the space; he could be here by tonight. I really haven't a clue."

"It figures." She sighed disheartedly, and then noticed the same door kept going by when she turned around to find she was able to see the doorway into the kitchen clearly. Bill looked to and looked more annoyed and almost steaming mad.

"Damn charms…BAKURA!"

"He says to knock on the door three times and tap once." Bakura's voice rang down the hall.

"Thanks." Bill knocked three times and a quick tap with his knuckle once. Immediately the hall ways stretched out like a slinky and made about five more doors and a sharp turn to the right. She looked at it amused, and tired of being surprised. Bill didn't bother to explain and went down the hall, looked at his watch suddenly and rubbed his head.

"Ann… I got a seminar with Peggy; the tour will have to wait, turn the corner and knock five times and kick the seventh door once if it's important. Later." He turned swiftly on his heel and ran down the hall quickly, his trench coat swishing like a robe. Ann was left wondering what to do and realizing how much Bill had changed, he was more business, an eerie alikeness to Kaiba. She sighed at what was happening to her friend and decided to think about it later, she would now explore.  He reached the knob for the battered door Bill had just knocked on and turned the brass knob wonderingly and looked in side. 

            It was a plain room with a window, a bed, a desk, a closet, and a bookshelf. The bed had sheets thrown all over in a muddled mess, like someone had tossed about a lot in a nightmare or something. The desk was a chestnut color wood and polished so it shinned in the sunlight from the window, it had been covered in all sorts of golden trinkets and kept clinking and clanking every second in weird movement, which was some what interesting. The closet had a door like the one she entered, she wouldn't have even known it to be a closet if the door wasn't hanging open and clothes hanging about it scrunched up. The bookshelf was made of the same wood and as tall as the ceiling, crowded with books and stray pieces of paper shoved into them. Disappointed, Ann slowly shut the door with a click and turned to Mai looking at her straight in the face. She flinched at her sudden appearance, and the serious but calm violet eyes like Yugi's. 

"How can you stand it?" Ann frowned curiously at her.

"Stand what?" She shook her head, swing her golden locks of hair.

"Never mind. Come on… you need a make over…" Ann noticed the way she was looking at her frizzed and knotty brown hair and made her nervous.

"Um… no thanks… I don't think I need one…" Mai took her by the wrist and pulled her hard out of the hallway talking bossy but formidable to her.

"Believe me; I've never seen anyone need one more than you girl." With that Ann was dragged off to the one thing she always feared when her sister tried to take her to beauty salons. To look pretty.

3 hours later.

"Wow you look good." Tea said while putting some kind of hair gel in her hair to keep the uncomfortable way it was set on her head to stay uncomfortable. Ann struggled in the chair, terrified about the thought of anyone seeing her like this. Mai took the last swipe of a comb and stood back looking at it, making sure it was perfect, in her eyes, as Serenity gave her some slivery lipstick to use on her. Ann looked at her sadly as she bent down to apply lipstick while Mai talked again to her.

"I don't understand you. You have the looks to impress a lot of the men I meet but you don't want to. I mean you almost look as good as I do when the right makeup is added." Ann rolled her brown orbs and waited until her lips were done and waxy before she answered.

"I get enough of that from my sister. She wants me to prance around looking like a doll for heaven's sake! I swear she only does all this stuff for her boyfriend…" Everyone was silent. Ann could have cursed at that slip, while looking at everyone's faces.

"She has a boyfriend?" Ann looked unhappily at her shoes and tight jeans they forced her into.

"Yeah, she met him six months after Joey left, and she's absolutely devoted to the guy. Like he is necessary to life." Serenity didn't look happy, sadly at the carpet, making one wonder what she was thinking. Tea looked calm, she probably understood what Marie was doing more than she did, which made her feel a bit more comfortable about the subject. Mai just shook her head.

"That's unhealthy." She shook a blue flower-covered can of something that smelled nice and sprayed it all over her as she uneasily tugged at the tight red shirt she was wearing and wanted badly to wear her old clothing. Mai only rolled her eyes at this.

"It covers all your good features, now hold still…"

"That was the basic I idea, what IS that stuff?" She asked in the middle of coughing, making the mistake of trying to sigh in relief.

"It's perfume." She finished by capping the can.

"Done."  Everyone stood back as Ann got out of the chair clumsily as they looked on at the job they did.

"That's got to be the best job I've ever done." Mai said while looking at her with pride.

"Well, second best to me." Ann felt sick at her statement and looked for a mirror to see how bad, or good, it was and to find the nearest sink. Tea handed her a mirror calmly and she looked in.

            Some one completely different looked back. Well, not completely different, her brown eyes looked back at her. The rest of her was transformed into a lady, which scared the shit out of her on first glance. Her usually frizzed hair had been smoothed down and tamed to look glossy and soft, making her want to pick at it. They hadn't put any powder make up on her because her skin was just too pale, but in stead but silver on her lips to make it stand out. The light blue eye shadow made her eye lids itch while trying to blink it off as she looked at the tight fitting clothing she was wearing, exposing herself. She dropped the mirror immediately and dove for her odd clothes.

"Does ANYONE know where the bathroom is?!?!" Mai frowned.

"It's not that bad." 

"No, no, it not that it's just that I actually hate being dressed up." She continued to pick up clothes franticly, hoping not a single male soul will ever see her like this, but that wouldn't happen. She expected Mai to object but no one was saying anything to her. She looked up with handfuls of her clothes.

"What's the matter with you-" She froze at the sight of Bakura's head in the door, staring at them looking pink, and then going light red, then going the darkest red she ever saw. Horrified she took the mirror she dropped and threw it at the door as fast as possible.

"GET OUT!!!"   Bakura quickly took his head out of the door and slammed it as the mirror smashed. So angry she huddled her clothes in her arms and without saying another word she opened all the doors in the room until she found the bathroom and slammed the door and started scrubbing at her face furiously. 

"I am NEVER going to let them do this again…" She scrubbed for what seemed like hours, until her face was pink and throbbing, but clean and free of powers and wax. After she threw her clothes off and got into her old jeans, tank top, and heavy green sweater that was always to long for her arms and then jumped around for a few minutes putting on her old ratty sneakers she loved so much. She was about to attack her hair when someone knocked on the door.

"Yeah?"

"Bakura was gonna tell yea Bill was out." She paused at Joey's voice, realizing he was there on Bill's account and it probably a complete accident, and she threw a mirror at her. Oh wonderful.

"Hey Joey."

"Yeah?"

"Where is Bakura?" There was a pause.

"He's with Bill." Ann sighed and opened the door to Joey leaning on the wall, looking surprised. She looked at her hair and back to him annoyed.

"Yeah, yeah, just direct me to them." Joey shrugged and started walking out the door with Ann following him, tugging at her hair mercilessly. She followed him into the family room and through the door at the corner of the room, outside. Trees seemed to surround the house, mostly pine there was one or too bare trees, snow lightly covered their branches but covered the ground like a thick layer of frosting on a cake. Their breath turned foggy as they started along the house through the snow, swirling in the thick cold as they walked through the icy white numbing their ankles. Joey was shivering unlike Ann, she was use to the cold weather, had grown to love it. She smiled warmly at the light fluffy flakes falling down from the thick gray sky, wondering if Bill had the house built here for the same reason.  He lead her to the shed on the side of the house, also make with oak wood like his cabin, built larger than any garage she had ever seen. Bill was outside polishing a red car; it was one of those classy sporty kinds of cars with leather seats and had the top down. Bakura was washing the wheels talking to him quietly, Bill smirking and laughing as Bakura kept his calm posture, nudging Bill at the sight of them.

"Ann, sorry for the wait… but I heard you did something useful with the time at least."

"Don't make me sock you… whose car?" Bill got up and threw the cloth onto the bottom of the car looking at Ann ripping at her hair. 

"Do you like it? It's a Viper… I bought it with some of the money Peggy gave me…"

"That must have been a lot… where IS Pegasus anyway?" She asked him confused, noticing Bakura was avoiding eye contact with her.

"He's still in the seminar… I leave him there… it's arranged." 

"What ARE those "seminars" about any way?" Bill gave her a stern look, surprising the hell out of her.

"It's private; I'm doing it as a favor…where's Joey?" Ann immediately looked around to find Joey missing but tracks clearly marked going around the garage. She looked at the both of them puzzled until Joey remerged from the other side of the garage a few moments later with Yugi running and white in the face toward the car yelling to go. Everyone looked confused when the garage door opened slowly, exposing blinding headlights on a white van. Bill looked at it wide eyed and shouted.

"GET IN THE DAMN CAR!" Confused in the muddled chaos of the engine suddenly starting up, Bill jumped in the front seat while Bakura pulled her into the back seat as Joey slid over the back of the car and into the back with a crash. Yugi quickly jumped into the front seat while Joey started bellowing to go at the top of his lungs as Bill turned the key and hit the gas petal, making everyone lunged forward as a very large van with an ice-cream cone on the top broke the garage door and speeded after them. The car roared through the trees like a low flying jet as Ann watched the white van through her raffling hair, at it doing the same turns and trying to keep up.

"WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON?!?!?" Bill finally asked at Joey pissed.

"I got a job selling ice-cream last week…I had to fix the engine…" Bill's eyes went stormy, suddenly enraged making Ann stare astonished at him.

"SO THAT'S WHERE THE HELL THE ENGINE WENT! YOU TOOK IT YOU THEFTING BASTARD!"   

"TURN! TURN!!!" Yugi yelled over his voice in a high chirp as he ducked behind the dash board. Bill twisted the wheel quickly with an unnerving look on his face, so angry he was calm at how fast they were going through trees. The car spun in a circle, swerving snow all other the place, making Ann sick and almost throwing up over the side of the car before it started roaring and went forward. 

"HEY YOU TOLD ME TO GET A JOB!" Joey retorted, red in the face with heated madness not making Ann feel any better. Bill turned around with a deep red face and his eyes alight with flames and seemed to be getting taller than him by the second.

"YOU BASTARD! THAT DOES NOT MEAN YOU CAN TAKE MY EQUIPMENT!!!" Suddenly the car swerved at the pale hands of Yami, looking distressed but calm as he tried to figure out how the car worked.

"STOP FIGHTING NOW AND CONTROL THIS…THING!" Bill's mood didn't lighten a single bit. He only turned on Yami smoking with eyes like a bon fire.

"KEEP QUIET! YOU HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH THIS!" He then turned back to Joey looking ten feet taller than him, looming over him so angry Yami didn't even bother. He kept struggling with the wheel franticly until Bakura finally climbed into the front and swerved the wheel right to miss an on coming tree and directed him what to do next. Ann was shrinking down in the seat at how fuming Bill had become and how irritated she was getting at him. Her fists turned white from the force she was applying as her face turned from a light green to a purple color. Yami was calm as Bakura ducked a few times thinking they would crash and coming back up glad like a mole in the whack-a-mole game at those arcades, sometimes looking back the three of them and the ice cream van speeding after them. 

"YOU'RE THE BIGGEST NUSSENCE I HAVE EVER IN MY MISFORTUNE TO MEET. I DON'T EVEN KNOW WHY ANYONE CAN THINK OF YOU AS A FRIEND!!!" Bakura turned over disgruntled, his eyes a crimson shinning color as his hair ruffled up like lighting in a storm and glared at Bill hot in rage.

"BILL YOU SHUT YOUR FILTHY MOUTH AND DON'T OPEN IT AGAIN!" He turned around just as quickly as Bill suddenly shrunk down to normal size, loosing all the rage like a deflating balloon, looking aghast at what he had just said with everyone but Yami because he was desperately trying not to get them killed. Everyone was silent, leaving the cars roaring and small trees smacking against the hood and the cold wind whistling in their ears as well as biting into their bodies like knives. Ann was baffled, heated, terrified, and calm in an eerie twist of raw emotion bubbling under the surface of her own awareness as she looked back into the van still somehow keeping up with them no matter Yami's crazy driving. She had never suspected anyone could have been worse that Kaiba. Yami was ten times worse. She wouldn't have been surprised if they had ten cops on them in ten minutes, it would definitely happen if they got to town. Hopefully for the lives of everyone else they won't. 

"How are we going to loose these guys?" Ann finally asked to the back of Bakura's head, who she suspected wasn't looking any of them on purpose.

"We could always try the throwing the ice-cream I put in the trunk…" Bill glared at him but didn't open his mouth on fear of Bakura exploding again. Yami turned the wheel again, narrowly missing a huge birch, jarring all of them unpleasantly.

"That sounds like a good idea…" He agreed. Bakura responded by pushing a button on the dash board and hearing a faint click from the trunk of the car as the hood flipped out and hit the snow. Ann looked at the messed up hood, it had opened backwards to the seats inside of the rear lights. It didn't last long. Joey, Bill, and Ann instantly dove into what seemed like hundreds of gallons of ice-cream.

"How many did you buy?!?!" Bill asked astonished.

"It was on sale, an American dollar a gallon." 

"How many gallons did you buy?"

"Two-hundred."

"YOU SPENT TWO-HUNDRED DOLLORS ON ICE-CREAM!?!" 

"Well, I didn't want to run out of it." Bill put his face into his hands and sweatdropped. Ann shrugged it off and pulled out a box of strawberry and chucked it as hard as she could at the ice-cream truck. I swerved out of the way and kept on their trail doggedly. Bill pulled out a box and looked at the flavor as Joey threw a chocolate one.

"There is a such thing as marshmallow ice-cream!??!" Bill asked. 

"Of Course there is, when they say a thousand flavors they mean a thousand flavors!" Joey said loudly over the engine as he launched a bubble gum box into the gritted part of the truck. Bill threw the Marshmallow one and hit the cone on the top of the van squarely in the center. Suddenly a squealing music came on and they covered their ears painfully.

"OH RA! WHAT IS THAT HORRIBLE SOUND!?!" Yami screamed through gritted teeth as they suddenly drove out onto the road, Bakura shouting for him to stay on it. The disgusting song twanged painfully the melody of "Do your ears hang low" annoyingly as it persisted with the van behind them, somehow turning on a dime on the corner. A normal van should have fallen over, making Ann blink at it.

"I guess I shouldn't have loosened the tires…" Joey said stupidly making Bill scream.

"WHAT?!?!" As he stopped throwing ice-cream and looked at him horrified. Ann threw vanilla box as she saw they were going down hill into the city. Actually they were going down a mountain into the city. So much for not going into the city. They kept throwing ice-cream as fast as possible, trying to slow it down. It worked a little, but not enough to give them a chance to escape. Coconut, lime, cherry, cookie dough, grasshopper, pineapple, coffee, mint, dark chocolate, chocolate swirl, checkered, and vanilla bean were only some of the ice-cream that was now splattered onto the road behind them down the mountain and into the city, speeding past cars while they all hoped to god, one to Ra, that no one would cross their path of disarray they were causing. It was when speeding through the center of the busy city that they finally caught a break. The ear screeching music had finally come in handy as kids started running up the sides of the van, slowly it down for a few spare moments. Ann could see what seemed like two figures in the van trying hard to find the off switch as no disappeared into the back and shoved off a whole load of ice-cream that started kids screaming, but only slowed them down more. The figure returned, paused at the waving arm movements, and took the wheel as a familiar snow haired teen climbed out of the van and onto the top it and blasted the ice-cream cone off the top of the van, sending it tumbling down into the street.

"Hey! It's TombRobber!" Bill said surprised as Ann's jaw unhinged while Yami swerved the car at a corner. The van followed at the same movement, sending TombRobber stumbling off the top as a tanned hand grabbed his leg through the window and held on to him as he lifted vertical turning the corner and slammed into the side of the door as it started straight after them again.

"Judging by the hair it seems Malik is driving… god that's bad." Ann nodded in agreement as Bakura told Yami directions nervously, now hiding behind the dash board every once and a while. She watched as Bakura's counter part climbed shakily back into the van through the window and speeded faster after them. They got closer and closer, until somewhere near the end of the city they were so close Ann could have reached out a touched the hood of the van.  Both teenage boys looked angrily at them through the wind shield, until they started cursing Bill for the sly idea of giving them the finger and having Yami floor it. They might have not known what it meant, but they knew it was something insulting.  The speeded on the edge of the city, back to the mountains, while they finished throwing the last of Joey's ice-cream. It seemed like hours speeding up and slowing down, turning and swerving, avoiding the van trying to ram them. Okay Yami wasn't that bad of a driver, only five times worse than Kaiba. Finally they started going upward, back up the road to the cabin, having no more luck of loosing them. It was sure in everyone's mind they would get caught any second when they finally scored the break they hadn't dared hoped for, the turn into the forest the van suddenly lost a wheel and went over the drop, with a loud screeching, and Bill and Joey cheering, but left everyone else wondering what had become of them and if it would be the last of them. Probably not. Ann slid down into her seat as the car slowed down to a reasonable speed, until it got even slower and stopped dead with a loud sputter in the middle of the thick pine trees. Everyone was silent.

"We're out of gas." Bakura finally said as Bill jumped out of the car and popped the trunk back on and started pushing upward. Everyone soon did the same as him, pressing hard forward.

"How far is the house?" Ann asked already getting tired and sweaty.

"About a couple of miles…" Bill replied sadly as everyone groaned.

"Be glad Yami can't drive the way back." Bill laughed as he was suddenly pelted with snowballs.

BookDragon: "That's the end of the chap, please review!"

Bill: "Or call the collect number!"       


	4. Enlightened Secrets of the Guilty hearte...

Chapter 4: Enlightened Secrets of the Guilty hearted

            Ann looked up to Mokuba and Kaiba and Tristin standing in front of them. Mokuba's checks were pink and seemed attached by the huge grin of his face as he threw a snowball up and down contentily. As usual, Kaiba stood tall and business like, holding his hands together in front of him and watching the snowball go up and down by is traveling eyes. Tristin was bent down and collecting a huge mound of snow to make into a huge ball to throw at them. Bill coughed loudly, making Tristin jump and find them staring at him. Smiling he casually put a hand in one pocket as he brushed the other through his hair, dispensing of the evidence by slyly kicking it behind him. Everyone one noticed.

"…Let's go…now." Kaiba commanded at mid-silence and walk off quickly rubbing his hands together as Mokuba tagged along. Everyone sweatdropped as both brothers left with out even helping them push the car back up.

"Uh…Kaiba…"

"Use some for your powers." Kaiba replied, know exacting what he was about to ask. Bill looked dumbfounded a moment and suddenly was hit with a light bulb, not literally mind you, but enough to the point were Ann could have sworn they saw something bright shinning over his head a seconded ago from the corner of her eye.

"Oh yeah… I forgot." Everyone fell on the ground as Bill made the car suddenly disappear in a puff of smoke and dusted his hands off like a professional. Ann got up, looking puzzled, but not about the car but what Kaiba had said before.

"Bill… what powers?" Bill moved on quickly up the hill without saying a word, almost tripping a few times at the height of the snow and shivered on the way back from the cold. Ann thought about following when the rest of the group pasted her, Bakura in back, with the most twisted expression on his face. Getting sick of wondering so many things at once and feeling guilty about the whole dress up thing she caught up to him at a good run because she had thought about it far to long and started to walk beside him. At first he ignored she was even there, becoming every interested in the clouds to the opposite of her, so she only saw the white of the back of his head. She looked down to the ground sadly, knowing she must have really pissed him off, and tried to think of something to say. Bakura I'm sorry I was a bitch earlier and… no that wouldn't work. I'm sorry about how I reacted earlier and I shouldn't have thrown that mirror at you, not that, it was _way_ too corny. As she thought it out while staring at the snow, the others got a head of them slowly, Yami talking to Joey about dueling and how he was doing, and Tristin listening and laughing at Joey, and  Tristin  noticing them in the back and how weird Bakura seemed to be acting. Tristin just grinned as Yami found himself totally clueless to why he was grinning like a maniac, then puzzled about why he was grabbed by his arm and dragged forward with Joey who didn't notice anything but his stomach making very loud noises, like volcano erupting sound. Bakura watched them leave suspiciously from the corner of his eye and tried to slip his hands into his pockets wondering why they were leaving like that. He wondered about how his counterpart had gotten back so easily and the danger Bill was exposing himself too by even wearing that thing. He sighed and wondered if Ann knew if it was safe or not, to leave it in Bill's control. It was a very good show she was keeping up about not knowing a thing about it.

            Finding what she was going to say she opened her mouth when Bakura spoke.

"It's a good act." Her eyebrows burrowed perplexed.

"What act?" Bakura looked at her with laughing eyes, which took her by surprised.

"Marie was right, you could have been a comedian…"

"I really don't know what you're talking about…" Bakura's eyes changed drastically to a deep serious and his face lost all it's light and turned dark and gloomy like a flash.

"You…really don't know?" She temper flared a moment as she immediately cool off enough at the thought that it seemed he sounded like he wanted to tell her.

"No… I don't." She said guiltily, or trying to make it sound so. His expression turned grave, worst than normal moping he was having.

"…He didn't tell you…?" His voice questioned almost to himself as he brought his hand to his jaw to steady the chattering chill going down his spine, looking down to the snow. Ann looked at him concerned.

"Tell me what? What's going on?" She was getting sick of being left in the dark from all this bull that was happening, the portals, the bracelet, the house, the seminars, the car chase, Malik after them, how TombRobber returned, them working together, and Bill doing this with these "Powers" of his. She was tired of wondering. 

"What has happened, what is happening, what's on your mind." She demanded with keen and stern eyes, looking right at him. Bakura brushed through his hair nervously staring at the snow, not catching her gaze on purpose and started to speak.

"Things have happened since you have left. Little things that pile up into big changes…" He turned swiftly to her gaze and looked at her just as sternly. She came to realize that he, too, like everyone else, had changed.

"Bill has taken on new burdens by living here. The fact he has to defend himself at all costs because of the powers and responsibility that he has now doubled, he doesn't… die by mortal things… it's complicated." He rubbed his head as if thinking hard enough to give himself a headache.

"What do you mean die?" 

"Tristin killed him last week… on accident…almost…" He looked at her expressionless face, clearly unable to think of the words that he had just uttered so softly into swirling fog.

"He was making sausages… tried to throw the sausage prong into the sink when Bill walked by and turned to look at him…" He steadied his cold hands at the shiver of the memory of Tristin with an aghast look covering his white face while he looked down to the glassed over brown eyes that looked so much like his own. He had seen himself dead on the floor, not Bill. 

"Tristin was shaking with grief… until Bill got up off the floor like he tripped and started to laugh and looked at everyone like nothing had happened, with the prong sticking through his chest, not even noticing that he was suppose to be dead." Ann covered her mouth completely aghast at how she could he him like that, how clear it printed itself onto the walls of her mind, enough to make her shake looking at him like Bill had actually died and found herself drowning in the sorrowful pools of his eyes.

"He figured it out quickly by our looks, and started at the thing surprised until Kaiba had the nerve to reach over and pull it out of him, blood pouring onto the floor like water from a glass, Bill's look of anguish as his own fluid leaked out of him like a hose…I lost it about then all over the floor and locked myself into a room for about three days… it brings too much back." He rubbed his ice hands onto his heating forehead numbly as the far colder but comfortable touch of another made him twitch as it covered and pressed against his forehead lightly.

"You're getting a fever…" Her voice strayed away, trying not to get upset as her throat thickened and she felt hot tears licking her eyes.

"He's alive not from his own doing, but from a trinket my other has the most understanding of. Bill's gotten himself into more trouble than he can possibly imagine by even being arrogant enough to think he can control it. It jumps his powers over it's regular limit but will come at a greater price." He sounded more and more tense as he went along.

"What powers?"

"He's, the one he has just by being alive here, his imagination in another's. It's like lighting a match to gasoline, it spreads like wildfire, but only enough in the space he's allowed and the other has left open." Ann was looked at him confused as he yawned wearily and swayed a bit, as she realized this was getting ridiculous. 

"Bill having powers just by being from my world and exercising his imagination? It sounds far fetched."

"It not only having the imagination, it's being able to picture things in your mind clearly, like a photograph, for long periods of time, like watching your own movies. Bill explained it to me that way…all these things are not happening by random, he's still testing his abilities, he tells me so, it's only frightening to me." He took a slow breath like he was going to throw up but swallowed quickly and continued as Ann thought about catching him if he fell.

"I know about those things, you know it was the priests that started to rob the tombs, one of my ancestors had to have been one once because of how he knows so much and the fact he looks like me so much, like Yugi to Yami, it only scares me to think of my ancestors at all, if he's one… I must talk to him soon, and settle everything between us, to finally have one of us put up the white flag…"

"Are you sure he's still alive?"

"Yes, I can feel it. We are, like it or not, connected…" He stopped talking about then and didn't look at her, frankly Ann was taken by surprise at how serious he was, she had always pictured him as quiet and calm, but never really toured like this… to be so afraid. After a while of silence she spoke when Bakura didn't.

"…What do you want me to do?"

"We need to contact my… other." Bakura said with a shiver at the words that just came out of his mouth.

"…How?"

"Some of the things in Bill's room… I think we could use one…" Ann was taken aback by the way Bakura was thinking. She had never pictured him like that, but she too was a quiet one in her class, she too had many thoughts like him. She was embarrassed with herself to think herself different. The thought of taking one of his… things… was strange. Bill had been there as a friend for a long time, it had been sad when he had left and good when she saw him again, and now strange that she was almost going against his will. Bakura seemed to know what he was talking about. She knew it wasn't the TombRobber speaking because he had been with them the whole time, but it was still a disturbing factor to consider. 

"I'm not him…" He said suddenly, with the red light of the setting sun setting behind him, adding the dark shadow onto his face and into his distressed eyes, shinning brightly through it like a lighthouse.

"I believe you, I believe everything… I'll get one. I have one question though." He turned and looked at her to show his ears were open and listening.

"What is Bill using?"

"It's a charm, a golden scarab he found in Egypt, our world, he went there for a vacation… or so he said. I think it's making him ill… but I'm not sure…" He wrapped his arms around himself and blew out a cloud that swirled forward and twisted into nothingness.

"It would figure, Bill has always had a curiosity for Egypt, which explains why he jumped at the chance to go with you guys… you know he's very fond of you."

"…Yes…he is. He says I was his favorite character… it was kind of strange when he said it."

"I would think so, anyone who would say that would freak me out too!" She smiled at the blank sky where Bakura use to be, froze at the sight of no one, and looked down to Bakura laying flat in the snow, fainted because he's back was moving up and down as if breathing. Ann found herself sighing and calm instead of panicky as she picked him up the best she could, finding he weighted a ton as she lifted him on her shoulder with difficulty and started back to the house at a slow crunching pace, wondering what everyone would say when she was carrying him in the door, and not the other way around like in the movies.

"That's hilarious…I wish I could have been there…" Billed laughed at her as he updated his files on his laptop Kaiba gave him, while sitting on the couch in the family room sipping an expresso in pure glee. Ann twisted uncomfortably and tried to sink back normally as she switched the TV on nervously, avoiding the subject. She hadn't told Bill what had went on, and she wouldn't for Bakura's sake. She knew he would be fine in the morning, after he recovered, tomorrow she would talk to him and then go on with the plan. She glanced out the window to the deep red light pouring from the small orb hiding behind the blackened trees from view. She frowned out at it, knowing she would be going home soon, and leaving this place. Bill typed on seemingly without noticing the time, with the computer blipping every few seconds and him typing furiously enough to disregard the time a look over his screen.

WizardOfAnime: Who the heck are u?!?!

SupperGenius: Someone completely out of your league with your small mind. It's over, I won.

            Bill started to smoke angrily and as he thought so something else to say to that as Ann looked at the screen with haft closed eyes at the Instant Messenger box.

"That's got to be Kaiba." Bill looked at her annoyed.

"Yeah I know its Kaiba I'm just waiting for the right to catch him…" 

"Give it here." Bill passed the laptop to her and she typed on it quickly.

WizardOfAnime: Go play with your gadgets before I whoop your ass.

            Bill raised an eyebrow at her and read the response from SupperGenius with rage as he clicked his fingers and suddenly held an internet came and took the laptop and plugged the thing in.

WizardOfAnime: Read between the lines punk.

Bill held his ring finger his middle finger and his index finger up to the camera.

SupperGenius: You can't even rudely "Flip someone off" the right way either, you coward.

Bill steamed uncontrollably and started punching the keys angrily.

WizardOfAnime: You better watch it Kaiba! Or I'll expose you to your employees!

"What are you simpletons doing?" Bill and Ann looked up to Kaiba holding a cup of expresso baggy-eyed in bathroom robes and fluffy dark red slippers. Ann struggled to hold in the bubbling laughter over coming her senses as Bill looked to Kaiba and then the computer horrified. 

"Uh Hey Kaiba! What's up?" He asked sheepishly as he shut the computer down and slammed the screen shut before Kaiba could see what he was typing; Kaiba raised an eyebrow and demanded to know what he was doing.

"…Figuring where Ann's room is from the Shadow Realm…" He haft lied as Ann kept a steady lock on her mouth as Kaiba raised the blue cloud mug to his lips and stretched with the other arm.

"Are you staying here tonight?"

"Yes… to get some rest from those morons at work." He responded, almost dreamily, making Bill look at him funny.

"…Your not sleepwalking again are you?" Kaiba's slips twisted into a smile unexpectedly and spilled about haft of the cup onto the floor as he put it down onto the coffee table clumsily and sat on the table with a thud.

"Oh god… not again." Bill groaned as he casted off the laptop on his lap and stood up to pick up Kaiba off the table. Ann was looking amazed as Kaiba wobbled to his feet and stumbled with Bill out of the room, as she decided to follow them out into the hallway.

"Jeez, I probably should have guessed that him being so stressed out that he would sleep walk." Bill mumbled to her.

"I dunno, it seems normal really, my father does it a lot… we kept finding him in weird places though, like he once turned up in my sister's closet once." Ann told him as they reached Kaiba's door and opened it. The room was plain but contained many machines all over the floor, flashing screens and beeping buttons. Mokuba stopped staring at the massive monitor and froze his hands on the keyboard, as he looked at his brother and then to them without surprise.

"He fell a sleep on the second couch up stairs a hour ago… put him on the bed." Bill threw him onto the bed, letting his feet hang off the end, and glanced at Mokuba's computer and widened his eyes.

"YOUR SupperGenius! You little Pu-"

"Leave my brother alone…or I'll…muberdf…" Kaiba snored and turned over uncomfortably.

"You'd think he'd listen to me when I tell him he sleepwalks." Mokuba said while shaking his head.

"I was only playing with yea Bill, no hard feelings?" Bill looked at him suspiciously and glanced at Kaiba and nodded with a cocky smile, one she had deeply missed while he was gone.

"I'm cool… got that info I asked you for?" Mokuba smiled and handed him a pile of papers. Bill took it gleefully and looked over it quickly, his light brown eyes darting around it until he was satisfied.

"Great job! Thanks Mokuba!"  Mokuba grinned and went back to his original work, reading fanifics as Bill dragged her out of the room.

"Yeah, we get the website here." He answered her, as if reading her mind. Ann didn't bother to ask him what was in the packet of papers or where they were going now. They traveled down the musty stairs to the cool floor and over to the wall, where he took out the papers and looked over them again, slowly this time, taking in all the words. Ann shook off his grip on her arm and watched as the wrinkles increased on his forehead and the now familiar purple-black hole growing on the wall until it was large enough for both of them to climb through.

            They walked for about a haft hour in the purple mist when the bracelet lit up again and opened another portal like before, bright like fireworks and suspended in the air, motionless. Bill squinted at her threw the shinning rays painfully.

"This is where you go from here." He stated. Ann nodded.

"When will I see you? Tomorrow?" Bill pondered it a moment, rubbing the back of his head while shielding his eyes.

"It sounds good, 3:00? Use the bracelet to come, just be careful on the way…" She nodded again and climbed through the light and fell into bulky darkness as it dimmed and popped loudly behind her, leaving her in pitch black. 

            At first she panicked and slammed her head hard against something solid, making her increasingly dizzy. While rubbing her head furiously she stumbled up and against a smooth surface when she heard a familiar voice.

"Ann? Where are you?" Jumping she whacked her head again and cried out painfully when the smooth surface moved and exposed her room and a boy about eight or nine looking up at her annoyed.

"Mom said we're leaving in five minutes if you haven't heard the first time…what are you doing in the closet?" She didn't answer him as she kicked a box out of the way and got out of the closet not looking back as she shut it behind her.

"Where are we going?"

"To the store…we're having dinner when we get back…you're not going in that are you?" He asked disgustedly looking at her clothes as her lips tighten with controlled rage.

"If you weren't my brother Drew I'd…oh never mind, just get out so I can change."  His dark brown eyes shinned as the smirk grew on his face on the way out the door, making her suspicious until it came to a soft click, then she started ripping her room apart in search of something decent to wear out. 

            She finally found a black sweater and a green pair of pants and stumbled out the door while putting her shoes back on to the sound of the car horn beeping loudly in her ears. She sprinted out to the green truck and climbed into it while shaking, to find only her sister, her brother, and an older woman with dark brown eyes, her eyes. She was about forty years older, few years younger or older, but still beautiful with long brown wavy hair and pale skin and the same nose as Ann's. She buckled her seat belt and turned the key quickly, starting the roar of the engine and driving off. 

            Shopping was short. All though it was enough time to decide not to go with her mother and brother to the toy department, instead to do something she never did and went with her sister, to look at clothes. She watched her sister walk around a while, looking at tight-fitting clothing and mumbling about how her boyfriend would react if she wore this, most reactions made Ann wonder what they didn't do besides make out. Finally getting sick beyond purpose, she cut the gleeful moment with Marie.

"Joey misses you." Marie immediately dropped the blue silky skirt and small white blouse and turned to her with wide-eyes.

"W-What did you say?" She asked nervously at his name.

"You heard me right, he misses you every much." Ann explained to Marie what had happened this afternoon quickly and discreetly behind a clothes rack. She was surprised and suddenly ill looking as she told the story, it was almost disturbing for her to look like that in a place she enjoyed so much.  When the story was done they both stood up and pretended to weed through clothes, Marie furiously whispering to her.

"I did not mean to leave him, I was so sure I would probably never see him again… I mourned for what seemed like forever-"

"Yeah six months"

"- when my friends noticed and set me up with some guy, that was how I met him." Ann rolled her eyes annoyed and shifted through the clothes angrier, looking enraged at a tacky pair of pants.

"Well you're not the faithful type are you?"

"You know every well that isn't fair…how would you react to someone you loved leaving forever?!"

"I wouldn't love anyone ever again! That's how I would react!" Ann stormed away angrily, out of the women's clothes to follow the cream tiles somewhere else, anywhere else.    

            Her mother found her roaming around the magazine rack, bored and fuming as she read and reread the titles, trying hard to control the boiling temper. When she was called her mother gave her a worried look, almost inviting her to talk about it, but she ignored it with a fake smile and tried to assure her everything was fine. She was given the "are you sure" look and nodded as they left the store carrying a few bags of Marie's clothes and Drew's toy car and something else.

"Ann, why did you buy a slide latch?" She was taken by surprised by this.

"Uh… to have some privacy in my own room… to keep nosey brother's out." Drew stuck his tongue out at her as her mother swallowed the lie with some doubt, but took it all the same.

            Dinner was uneventful. Ann picked at her food, still feeling a twisted emotion between angry and guilty as Drew wolfed down everything on his plate and looked longingly at her hamburger. Ann pushed the plate over too him, making him smile at her and eat her food, while her mother watched.

"Are you sure you're okay?" She asked in her light voice, giving her full attention, not something the middle child of the family got every much. Ann just smiled warmly at her.

"Yes, I'm fine Mom, I just ate a snack too late… I'll eat something good when we get home." Her mother again took her answer, more suspicious that before. It caused even more worry in Ann's mind.

            The moment she returned home, she immediately took the latch and started to nail it into her door and the wall, while Drew watched her curiously through the noise of the hammer pounding away as she worked. Marie didn't come near her in that time. When it was done Ann locked herself into her room.

"Hey Drew, bust the door open." She heard feet scramble behind the door and back away.

First it was silent then loud footsteps banged against the hallway and a body was thrown into the door at full force with a loud bang. The door squeaked loudly but stayed intact and tightly closed.

"Okay! Thanks bro!" Footsteps waked away from the door and she sat on the floor, tired from all the stuff that had happened with afternoon. Her eyes were bagged, much like Kaiba's, but from the weariness of her own heart. Guilt, rage, and happiness was twisted into a deep lump in her chest, as she slowly drifted off into sleep, holding her knees and being pulled tight into a ball as her vision blurred and slipped into darkness.

            The lack of food must have really affected her, for she didn't eat anything went she got home, by attacking her own dreams, that or just the guilt stone in the pit of her stomach calling to her.  She stood on the stairs, the stairs of her house that lead to the second floor, and she stood frightened at the shouting and roaring down stairs. In the hallway to her kitchen was a loud bellowing and crashing as coats and shoes flew and hit the walls. The doors were kicked and pounded at mercilessly, but stood firm and strong, only making the noise and scrapping louder. Holding her head she realized it was Bill's voice echoing off the walls as a deep ocean of blackness splashed the foot of the stairs and grew to the second in moments, Bill screaming swears and curses at the oak doors as the sound of the wood splinted. Panicked Ann turned the stairs and found Bakura looking at her sorrowfully, standing calm and depressed, tears coming down his eyes and onto his soaked shirt.

"You've got to stop him Ann, you're the only one who can…" He stepped forward and suddenly grew huge in front of her and pushed her off the stairs and down, down, down into the oil sea, and into blood red eyes.

            Ann shot awake to someone pounding on the door shouting for her to open it. At first she backed away from it, not realizing this was not her dream and hiding into the corner, until her senses came back. She felt like yelling at herself as she opened the door tiredly to her sister's face. Remembering the fire in her mind she glared at her.

"What?!"

"It's seven o'clock…"

"So."

"Well, you got to go." Ann rubbed her eyes annoyed.

"Go WHERE?!"

"Go out with your friends…today's SATURDAY!" Marie screamed at her and left just as angry as she had yesterday. Ann looked at the calendar and quickly found some other clothes and hopped out the door again.

She met her friends at the market, hanging out near the no loitering sign. She stopped right in front of them, fifteen minutes late, and holding her knees breathing hard in a deep blue sweater with cream colored cotton pants, her hair tighten back carelessly. Brian and Kyle sitting on the cement wall looking down at her, wondering what happened to make her like this.

"What's up?"

"Bill's up." Brian jumped off the wall looked at her seriously.

"You're serious?"

"Yeah I'm serious, I'm going back to visit him today…at 3… you guys gotta help me think of an excuse for a reason why Marie isn't going."

"Tell him she's got to do chores."

"How did you know it was an excuse for Joey?" Ann asked Kyle curiosity.

"Because he likes her." Ann looked at him annoyed.

"Thanks a lot…but I guess the chores idea will have to fly…what's the time?"

"2:15" Brian told her casually looking at his watch and leaning against the wall, bored as all get out.

"…Want to go now?" 

"…Alright." Ann smiled. Hopefully Bill wouldn't mind a couple of old friends showing up. Ann rolled up her sleeve and held out the bracelet carefully and suddenly froze. She had forgotten to ask him how to open a hole into the realm.

"Uh…" She took off the bracelet and tinkered with it, trying to figure out how to do it, feeling stupider by the moment in front of both of them.

"…What are you trying to do?" Brian finally asked, glancing at his watch. Ann groaned annoyed.

"I'm trying to open a portal with this thing…Bill did it yesterday…while taking a bus engine…" Ann finished annoyed as Brian signaled to fork it over. She handed it to him disheartedly. He looked at the symbols, shook it once, and rubbed the banned admiringly but baffled when sparks started flying all over. He almost threw it away when Ann took it and held on as it ripped open a hole, surprisingly not attracting that much attention from anyone, it was a good reason they hid here, all though she hoped the sparks still wouldn't cause any trouble. The hole stood glinting and shinning in everyone's eyes, Kyle was awe struck and Brian was just as looking at it admiringly and Ann was cursing.

"WHY THE HELL DOESN'T IT WORK WHEN I TRY TO DO IT!" She yelled furiously. Brian and Kyle just looked at her annoyed and wondered what to do next, Ann walked forward simply and put her hands on the edges of the circle and pulled herself through. The boys looked at each other a moment and shrugged. They followed.

            In the usually air of the Realm the boys were a bit started as Ann reassured them it was fine, even though she was only in this place twice, she had confidence in Bill and ignored the pang in her gut at the guilty raising. She rolled her sleeve again and took the bracelet off and started walking forward with it in front of her, into the air faithfully.

Into the unknown.

BookDragon: *yawns* "I hope you guys are happy with nine pages…"

Bill: "Please review, or call that number!"

BookDragon: *whacks Bill with a notebook* "I told you the phone's broken."                  


	5. Sword Sheath

BookDragon: "No I'm not doing another Bakura Fiction, sorry guys. I'm trying to focus on everybody."

Bill: "Yeah it's nuts." *makes crazy sign with hands*

BookDragon: *looking boredly at the signs* "You're realizing this NOW?"

Bill: "Uh…okay… just read the chappy…this is getting weird…"

Chapter 5: Sword Sheath

"I'm tired of walking!" Kyle complained loudly, echoing off into the desolate purple-black smog around them. Ann rolled her eyes, annoyed for the fifth time he said that in ten minutes.

"Look! I have no idea what will happen to us if we stop. What if we get lost?!"

"Aren't we already lost?" Ann glared at Brian menacingly. He just looked at her and yawned boredly and kept walking as she turned and shook the bracelet angrily.

"Come on! Why wouldn't this freaking thing work!"

"Maybe it's you…try putting it on again." Brian reasponded tiredly as Ann took it out of her left hand wearily and slapped it back onto her arm and kept walking on, noticing that her legs were starting to cramp and was starting to consider to stopping. Finally after a few minutes of debating she heard a loud thumb behind her and immediately knew Kyle was sitting on the ground, legs curled Indian style and his nose turned up like a preppy teen girl who was just asked out by a nerd.

"I'm not going a step further." He said in a plain voice, no added emotion at all. "If I die, I die a resting man." Ann simply turned and sat down in the same fashion and stared up at the sky. Brian just blinked at the both of them, messed up his black-brown hair while rubbing his head, tugged on his black shirt and sat down in the same way. 

"We're all going out together?"

"No." Brian answered locally and pulled out some crackers out of his pocket, took a few and crunched on them. Kyle looked at them with longing sad eyes, until Brian forked over the bag finally sick of the look. Kyle took it happily and started munching on them hungrily, making Ann raise an eyebrow surprised at him.

"When was the last time you ate? Two days ago?"

"No, accually ten minutes ago." Ann's head went down with a jerk at the question and sighed annoyed.

"What's the time?" She asked a few moments later ignoring Kyle's lip smacking sounds. Brian took out his watch slowly, looked it, shook it a lot, tapped it, punched it, and finally looked at her baffled.

"It's not working." 

"I've realized." She stated looking dully at the watch hands that were dead on the surface of the watch, frozen in time. Maybe they were frozen in time too, frozen like lake water in the depths of a never-ending winter, covered fluffy snow, hiding behind the ice crystals, forever. 

"Hey! Are you okay?" She blinked at looked at Kyle's pale white face, a huge opposite to the rosy checks he always had, which woke her up rudely.

"What?"

"I don't know, it just got really cold a minute ago… like I could see the fog coming out of your mouth…" Ann wrinkled her forehead confused, dazing off thinking, too busy to notice her eyes were on his purple shaking lips. Brian stood up and dusted his shirt off while rubbing his arms when he noticed some white fluff by his feet, and knew it was snow. Looking curiously at it he tapped her on the shoulder carefully, shook her a bit, and finally jabbed her in the arm very painfully.

"OUCH! What the hell was that for?!?!"

"It's time to go." He pointed to her arm, which had a bright glowing band around it that hurt to look at directly, making her have difficulty taking it off while shielding her eyes. Once it was off it did the usual tugging and twisting and firework light show until it was done, probably feeling smug with itself by being so stubborn. Ann sighed in relief and took a firm grip on both sides and step through the bubbly radiant light and into the familiar dim basement she had only visited yesterday. She blinked a dew times have trouble adjusting her eyes, as Brian emerged through it nimbly, and Kyle who struggled around a bit and almost fell on the floor. The circle stayed open a few minutes longer until Kyle started wiggling his finger in his ear, and smacked the side of his head. A few golden drops hung about in the air a few moments until they whisked themselves into the huge pool and dissipated, leaving them surprised but not really surprised, like it was too normal.

"Where are we?"

"We're in Bill's basement."

"Since when does Bill have the know how to have a house?" Brian asked in disbelieve.

"Since now…" Ann climbed the stairs quickly, making a lot of noise scrabbling up the stairs as the other two boys struggled to get in front of her. It had turned into a contest to get up the stairs and open the door first. Of course none of them did. Yugi opened the door puzzled at the noise and ended up getting tackled by the group hard onto the floor. Muddled disarray filled the room loudly with shouts of pain and bitterness until they straighten themselves out. Brian and Kyle were happy to see him, as he and Yami was to them; Ann was busy looking around for Bakura, and found him leaning against the doorway of the hall. She snuck away from the jabbing guys and to him. 

He was usually pale, a computer paper white with two very chocolate colored eyes looking at her, frail eyes. She only glanced at him and kept walking, knowing he would follow her at a slow pace down into the stretching hall to the first door. She rested he hand on the door gently and opened it with a shaking twist and slowly opened the door, peering in to look if the coast was clear. The room was empty of people. She opened the door all the way with a jerk and shut it after Bakura. 

"What do you want me to do?" She asked him below a whisper, trying to control her stomach writhing in her gut.

"Pick up one of those…" He pointed to the desk with a long pale finger and Ann stepped toward it slowly, feeling her heart in her chest thumbing quickly. Each step was horrific, more sickening than the last. She wanted to throw up to get out of this situation, to leave and never enter the room again. She was at the table staring down at the sparkle of gold in front of her, which was now moving like water, swirling in their objects frames.

            She took her hand slowly and reached forward slowly and picked up a long rectangular object that had caught her eye and held it up slowly. She only realized it was a sheath when it was too late, when everything suddenly went very dark, like a shroud smothering her instantly. She heard a hard swallow behind her and knew Bakura had somehow come with her, where ever that had gone. Air was circling them; she could feel it and see it in her hair. It tickled her face playfully and wrapped itself around her like a light blanket. She heard a small whimper from behind her and knew it was Bakura, which sent a chill down her spine and tried to turn around to see what was happening to him when she realized she could move and she too became afraid. The wind was suddenly restless and strong around her kneels, and suddenly circling not on her but in front of her stormily with small sparks crashing. The sound that ear splitting as her eyes shut tightly and ended with a loud slam when she landed to the floor with a dull bone shaking thud. As everything came into focus she felt increasingly lightheaded and sick, and saw someone standing in front of her. Getting up slowly in a jerky fashion because she was trying to get back control of her own muscles again, she stood up and looked at a girl standing in front of her in aghast. 

            Her eyes were closed lightly, as if sleeping, but it was her own eyes. It was herself standing in front of her in different clothes, some kind of white robes, but with her face and body. Her arms were crossed and holding a sheath in her right hand with a clenched fist, like Ann was holding the same object at that very moment. Ann felt a body brush against her arm and jumped and found Bakura standing calmly beside her, looking somewhat surprised.

"I never expected this…"  The Ann's double jerked suddenly and uncrossed her arms, making Bakura jump and pull Ann back away from her as her eyes opened. Golden eyes looked at them under a stern glance at them and moved her arms comfortably and looked at Ann seriously.

"Who are you?" The double moved her wrists slowly and secured the object into her leather belt and put her arms behind her back.

"I am Kakra, royal guard of the Pharaoh. Who as awoke me from my slumber?"

"Um… Ann and Bakura… we are…uh…friends of the Pharaoh." Kakra glared at Bakura menacingly suddenly.

"Friends! We've caught him stealing several times from the treasury. You lie." Ann looked at Bakura's baffled face just as confused, until realization lit her face.

"…Times has changed…" This caught Kakra's attention.

"Changed?"

"Yeah…it's been more that two-thousand years since your Pharaoh ruled…" 

"T-two thousand?" Ann nodded at her.

"It was suppose to awake earlier than that, only to serve King Yami again that I was put to sleep…" Ann and Bakura looked at each other.

"King Yami?"

"Yes, when the worlds split I swore to stay at his side, but he refused. I then went to a spellcaster and had myself imbedded in my sword…him." She pointed behind them. Bill stood in the blackness behind them, shaking with furry with red-brown eyes he looked at them.

"You…You…You…" He voice was extremely hoarse in the air around them. Ann felt herself stepping away from him, wide-eyed at his figure slowly getting larger and more and more menacing by each moment. 

"Uh…Bill calm down…" Bakura said in a small whimper.

"CALM DOWN!?!?! YOU EXPECT ME TO CALM DOWN?! AFTER MY BEST FRIEND BREAKS INTO MY ROOM AND BETRAYS ME! YOU EXPECT ME TO CALM DOWN AFTER THAT?"

"A-actually the door was open…" Ann's voice stated like a suggestion as Bill's glare loomed over her head.

"YOU! You weren't even suppose to KNOW about this…did HE drag you into this?! NO he probably told you and you decided to get involved. YOU MEDDLING BITCH!" A spark of rage flashed in her eyes and she made a movement forward. She felt a hand squeezed down on her shoulder and a voice much like her own whispered in her ear.

"Control it…he is your friend" Maybe they had more alike than expected. Her hand claimed painfully with increased strength. Bill raged on, as Bakura stayed silent, letting it fall over his head. She pulled forward again and was restrained.

"Leave them…it is their quarrel."

"No, I'm part of this mess too…Bakura wouldn't fight him, not even if he has a good reason…"

"He's not much of a man then." Even through the yelling she heard that.

"…Never mind…can you do something for me?" Kakra thought about it a moment.

"Yes."

"Can you find the boy you mistook my friend here for?" She thought about it a moment.

"Yes, I can. However, we would need the spellcaster's help…or that." She pointed to the bracelet lighting under her sleeve like a flashlight.

"Really?" Kakra nodded.

"What do I do?"

"Look at the inside band." Ann took it off shakily and looked, the same three pictures shinned out at her.

"Let me have it."  Ann forked it over to Kakra's tanned hands. She looked it over with a small smile on her face.

"You know, I had a family bracelet like this… but I had to use it to pay the caster…I shouldn't have ever, it's surprising you have one…you must be my mirror image."

"Mirror image?"

"Yes…he had told me before I did this, in every world you have a double at some point in time, we must have a whole string of doubles. It's a type of balance, he was very vague…"

"…Okay…let's call Bakura's double then…"

"The white haired boy's a double? It makes sense…are you ready?"

"…Yes." Both girls looked at each other and Kakra gave the bracelet back and took the sword Ann held. Kakra muttered something under her breath, and put her fingers together. Ann felt the wind picked up again and light filled the room, stopping Bill's yells flat and left them staring as slowly a familiar shape emerged from it. Loud coughing commenced and brown eyes glared at her and she immediately knew it had worked.

"It has been a long time since anyone has summon me-" His eyes froze at the sight of them, suddenly embraced with rage. It was going to be a long day. 

BookDragon: "Sorry for the cliffy guys…I'll update next week.

Bill: "Please review… she's been writing for three hours straight to even think of all this…"

BookDragon: "Yeah I know the double thing is kind of weird, but she wouldn't be part of the whole story, this is only going to be for a few chapters…unless you guys think I should keep her in the story… I still don't know what I'm gonna do…review and I'll make up my mind."  


	6. Kaiba Land?

BookDragon: "Thanks for the reviews guys…"

Bill: "On with the fic!"

Deep random voice: She doesn't not own Yu-gi-oh and never will."

* Both narrators look around franticly*

Bill: "What the Fuc-"

Book Dragon: "Hey! What the language! It's a pg13 not a Rated R!"

Chapter 6: Kaiba Land?

            The white haired boy dusted himself off, but still his wild angry eyes on them. The clutching fingers on her shoulder were clawing inward harder and harder by the second, Ann's teeth doing the same by the pain shooting through her. Something had sparked in the women behind her, a dark feeling stretching around her slowly trickling into her own blood. His flashed at the glance at her and kept on staring, a grin appearing on his face. 

"You've changed…both of you…hello Kakra. Long time no see…"

"Very long time." She grunted at him, not at all pleased by his appearance. The tone made him smile wider.

"Ah…you look prettier when you're angry…"

"Hmm…She hasn't called for love talk, so close your mouth for once." The smile edged off his face a bit and turned to Ann. His eyes pierced her own for only a moment, but left her wincing the second it was over.

"Ask your question while you have me here…" He spat at her annoyed as she regained her composure. She looked to Bakura questionably with a nervous glance; it had been his idea anyway. 

"I just want to know what is going on…" He spoke softly to his double, eyes casted down to the ground in submission. Bill crossed his arms and fidgeted uncomfortably, suddenly looking ill. Tomb Robber looked at him smugly and strode over to him so close they were nose to nose.

"I should've known it was your idea…" He breathed down Bakura's neck, showing he was dominating of the two. Bakura shifted uneasily under his glaring bright eyes, avoiding eye contact. No one said anything more; it seemed Tomb Robber didn't have to say anymore. Ann shifted uneasily at the atmosphere of this situation, but was aware of her, what you probably call, her own yami, standing behind her. She felt at ease with the presence of her double behind her, her hand resting on her shoulder comfortably. That was the only thing comforting at all about her being totally in the dark about anything, to be ignorant in such a crises. Getting angry at such a fault she lifted her foot but stopped dead to an unworldly voice speaking loudly.

"_I_ know what's going on…" The voice was deep and most certainly old, almost terrifying. A voice that echoed off the walls of your own mind like a little kid screaming in a library. Everyone spun on heel to the thing making the sound, actually the person. Bill stood weakly, shaking all over, with his eyes showing white as if rolled back into his head, looking like a zombie from those black and white horror movies. He stood like this for only a moment, until he fell forward like a rag doll down into the floor. He was caught an inch before his nose touched the ground, by a hand that looked too much like his own. The same blue clothed arm lifted him up limply off the ground and safely onto a navy shoulder belonging to a boy slightly taller than Bill, but the same face. His brown eyes blinked at them seriously, both young and somehow old at the same moment with one glance. He straighten out his figure and stared at them a moment, before taking a breath and starting.

"I am Ammon, Bill's double…" Everyone was gawking, except Tomb Robber and Kakra. Bill slowly stirred, groaning and holding his head, as his double thoughtfully placed him on his feet gently. Bill swayed a bit but steadied under the stern look of his twin's face, and turned to him annoyed.

"Have you ever heard of _ anger management_? Quirky, loyal, reckless, happy, impatient, smart, old Bill had returned, and just as humorous as ever. He was finally, finally, his old self. Bill looked at him dully but a warm smile appeared on his face, making his twin's lips curl no matter how hard he tried to keep a straight face. Ammon coughed thoughtfully at all the staring faces, looking as if he had just remembered what he was here for.

"Oh, where was I? Yes, the beginning… Bill came to Egypt for more than a vacation last year, he was actually trying to learn more about the world's division and more about what his imagination could really do… that's really how he stumbled upon me. I was asleep, hibernating, deep with in this…" His peachy hand held up a charm on a golden jewelry chain, a scarab. 

"My father had been the one to show the Pharaoh how to seal souls of monsters into the tables, it was in my family for years and years, my family mostly were fortunetellers, spell casters for burials, and recorders of time. With the gift given to us of putting souls to sleep in objects, we mostly but our selves there, to keep the family line going. I was sealed when I was fifteen, when my father passed away… it was a dumb thing to do; I was being forced to marry a woman I didn't love. Being the stubborn youth I was I sealed myself away. For thousands of years I slept, undisturbed, until I was shaken awake…" He looked at Bill from the corner of his eye as Bill turned his eyes away looking embarrassed at what was coming next.

"He had set one of my family's traps off while exercising what little power he had then, and a very nasty trap to be exact. He was running from the beast when he explained later that he got a mouthful of dirt and broke the case he was taking out, my object was in it, and he hadn't meant to touch it. After that small touch I took command of the situation immediately and set the black hound to rest. I questioned him after this, and learned about the out side world. He took me home after that, and I got use to the house slowly, Bill kept me a secret from you all, under my judgement. It was unexpected when Bill hadn't told me of you…" Ammon pointed at her with a bit of a snarl, but cooled off under Bill's glare.

"I was more worried when he said you were an extremely old friend of his when we were looked at the parts of the horseless carriage."

"Bus." Bill corrected him.

"Right… anyway, you wouldn't believe how much stress you caused me when you came too early today with your two other friends, eventually I found were you went and followed at what Bill calls a… pissed fashion?" Bill nodded.

"…And now, I'm here to tell you, you shouldn't have every touched that sword…and now I must correct you mistake the hard way…"  He reached out a hand to his left and made a large gold staff appear into his tight grasp, twisted it fast and pointed the large green stone in Ann's direction suddenly. The next moment was a whirl of chaos. Ammon shouted something at the top of his lungs and shot some kind of huge fire ball out of the end of his staff like launching a firework at you. She turned to run but was suddenly lifted off her feet right in front of it, looking at his wide-eyed all she could do was put up her hands in defense, knowing for a spilt second she was going to die. The flames brushed against her palms hotly, red and orange flames swirling and lightly burning the tips of her hands, as the bracelet shook angrily on her wrist, brighter than the North Star on a pitch black night, holding back the burning globe that would've killed her. The flames pressed against her hands lightly for only a moment when it died down into a puff of smoke, only leaving gray wisps of smoke dancing off her reddish palms and the brown disks in her eyes fully exposed in shock not at the flames, but at the only person that had ever really acted like an older sister to her for a few sparkling moments. Kakra. She didn't try to look back at her; she stood helpless suspended in mid-air by her strength in by her one tanned arm holding her so, straight out in front of Kakra. She had been a shield, for Kakra. Ann felt the full blast of darkness explode behind her, burning her soul as she hung white faced in a twisted shock, sadness, and rage beyond imagining. Kakra laughed out suddenly at full, booming horrible shrieks.

"Ammon! You _really_ thought you could kill me off with a single puff of flame? With my amount of training? You make me laugh."

"Not when you use your own self like a dispensable piece of crud, other wise I could've took your life with less than that." He growled at her with flames in his eyes, Bill didn't object at all at his anger. Kakra looked at him boredly and shook her in the air by the back of her shirt she was grasping.

"This? No. This isn't myself, or any of my doubles. She's a flaw in the worlds, nothing but waste of us all, unlike any of the other mes floating around. We're all clever, sly, beautiful, and resourceful. Not gullible…but I'm not too disgusted, she did make a good shield, and I wouldn't mind finishing her off myself, to rid the world of one more mistake…" Ann felt a grin stabbing the back of her head. Entering the cold words she couldn't believe she had just heard, chalk white and horrified at her own twin. Ann had never known anyone lower than Bakura's double; at least he saved Bakura once. Kakra laughed, holding her up in front of her, being completely stuck up.

"I was trained by the best Assassin of our time Ammon, it was my job to kill the pharaoh, to make him never return, I had to trick you to enlist your help…I never back out of a job…"

"You tricked me into thinking I wouldn't have to marry that girl, if I did you that favor. When I found you had tricked me there was only no think I could do to avoid it. In the end I had no choice but seal myself too…now put the girl down and let us finish this." Kakra let out a roar of laughter.

"Let her go?! You always _did_ have a sense of serious humor. No, I think I'll just take her with me when we leave, I kill her when she is no longer useful…but until then…" Ann's feet hit the ground with a jolt and for a brief moment she was away from her grasp, and then the next she had a blade itching to cut her throat with a single swift movement. She knew Kakra was grinning behind her, her right beside her own, looking at Ammon, about to take a step forward to.

"Now, knowing you, Ammon, you don't want to see blood as young as her's spilled…So stay back." He placed his foot back down gently with a twisted look of discomfort on his face; everyone was looking grim, except Tomb Robber.

"Are you ready to go darling?" Kakra's voice cooed to him across the room, making Ann feel really sick, as his dark voice answered.

"Yes…let us depart." At that moment in time, a muddle of chaos exploded into everyone's ears, hard to see in the swift movements. All Ann knew was the sword came too close to her neck for liking and she sliced her hand badly while gripping it, blood spattering along the blade as she yelped in surprised. Kakra shouted a shout of rage and a soft of gagging sound as Ann wriggled free from her grip, spinning around to a surprising scene. She stood with her knees bent, sword in one tight fist, and the other on an arm around her neck, choking her. Bill and Bakura where trying to over whelm her at once, Bill trying to make a grab for the red stained sword, and Bakura squeezing the breath out of her lungs by tightening his rip on her throat as she threw him around like a rag doll. Bakura wrapped his legs around her to hold on to her, compressing his legs into her stomach to hold on to her, as Bill tried to trip her or take the sword or something to help him, but her movements were too swift and at one point he was  got to close. The blade suddenly pierced through his shoulder and out the other slide like a hot knife through butter, more blood spraying all over as Bill made a low roar and tumbled away onto the floor with the sword swing around in him. Finally Kakra bit Bakura in the arm and threw him off with a flick of her arm, onto the ground sliding a few feet painfully. Ann was suddenly grabbed by her sweater painfully to glowering brown eyes and a twisted smile, until Ann found her self punching him square in the chest and ducking down, swinging her leg out, knocking him down. She tried to stand but found his hand clutching her ankle painfully and pulling her down to the ground with a bone rattling smack. He dragged himself upright and pulled her up by her ankle, hanging her upside down. Looking at an upside down world she saw Ammon tending to Bill, a heap on the floor, and Bakura looking unconscious on the floor, and Kakra. She turned to Ann glaring infuriated with inferno blazing in her eyes, clutched fists and mouth smeared on the side of her mouth, probably Bakura's, smirking evilly. Ann shared the same dislike and rage, hanging up side down with her sweater sagging and her hair brushing against the floor, her eyes returning the glare.

"So angry… control that temper of yours…"

"Like you do any better, Bitch."

"You know what? I've changed my mind. You're a flaw that must be dealt with…immediately. " She placed a sandal forward increasing the glare. Ann felt a pang in her gut as each step was taken and herself left defenseless at her deposal. It was all so…irritating, to die in such a stupid way, a damsel in distress. Realizing this, a small spark of fury flared and she found herself latching onto Tomb Robber's ankle and thought what she thought would be her last reflection. Screw this. She bit into his leg hard, tasting metallic blood flowing through her mouth, making her want to spit it out but clamped her teeth down harder. A roar of pain commenced and she watched the floor come spiraling into her face as she felt onto it. Swirling she felt a pair of strong hands clutch her throat threateningly, and noticed she couldn't breathe. Gasping she looked up at the blurred image of her twin through welling tears, grinning madly as she choked the life out of her, speaking loudly in her deafening ears.

"Oh, you're crying…it'll all be over soon…usually I'd twist your neck…but you deserve this for hurting him…" Ann gagged increasingly, feeling her throat heat up from the lack of air, her vision graying darkly by the second, wishing she could tell her he wasn't ever going to love her when Ammon gloomed over behind her and jabbed her in the back of the neck hard. Her eyes rolled into the back of her head immediately, releasing Ann, and falling to the floor limply behind her. Ann sat up quickly, rubbing her throat with one hand coughing loudly, and noticing her other was throbbing painfully as dark red blood poured out of her palm. She hacked loudly as tears poured down her pale face, the color returning slowly.

"W-where's…"

"They're both fine…Bill is regaining flesh by the moment. Bakura has fainted. Both will recover with rest and time…" He stopped talking and looked over her head plainly. She knew he was staring at T.R, she could hear his raged breath behind him, puffing. Kakra's body was pulled away quickly and placed onto his shoulder; she heard faint footsteps leading away. Making a move to surge upward to stop them Ammon kept her down with a stern glance.

"Let them go, they will return. We have fought our best today, we all need rest."

"But-" He silenced her with a strict stare and watched him stand as light reached out across the floor as both of them left in it, leaving them stranded in a dark room. Ammon turned swiftly to collect Bill and Bakura, both motionless on the floor unmoving. Ann followed to help, but instead got a look.

"Lady, let me…" She felt her face go red but picked up Bakura anyway before he could, showing her defiance.

"It's Ann…don't call me 'Lady' again." She mimicked his strict look and waited as he removed the sword slowly, and watched it dissipate out of his hands like sand. He picked up Bill's body gently, Ann noticing the blood stains draining into the wound and light lace stitching the wound up, like knitting.

"It's an old medicine…" He told her noticing her curiosity, and ripped a cloth noting her hand dripping. He tied it tightly, making her yelp and shake her hand from the sting. He kept his seriousness and lightly made a circle with his staff, echoing light off it into a circle in the darkness.

 It ripped open easily at his command and he effortlessly passed through onto the familiar navy blue carpet of Bill's room, Ann followed and heard it stitch up again quickly. He immediately opened the door; Joey fell into the room with a loud thud. Ann guessed he was trying to listen in.

"…Bill?" Ammon didn't answer him and kept on at a swift pace through the hall and into the kitchen, Ann following while finding she couldn't smile at him at all. Tristan laughed loudly as Mokuba giggled at Yugi's red face that suddenly dissipated at the sight of Ammon. He leaped from his chair at Ammon's glance and continued motion into the next door away from the kitchen. Ann didn't dare look at him and pursued him quickly, knowing he would want to know what was going on. Ammon opened the first door in the separate hall and placed him tenderly onto the bed, as did Ann with Bakura with some difficulty. He then turned his face to Yugi staring at him in the door way, violet orbs dancing from his staff, to his face, to his white robes and sandals. Ammon kept his solemn expression, but inside she already knew he was struggling with this.

"I am Ammon…I will explain when I am… properly dressed." Ann left when he said that and shut the door, closing Yugi's confused gaze. He looked at Ann, and then the door and then back to Ann still baffled beyond belief.

"Um, Bill has a…special soul…like you and Bakura…er…Yami will need to meet him." Yugi's eyes light up in disbelief when she noticed Joey looking at her too.

"Jeez, next thing we'll know, you'll have a twin…" Her face went white as her stomach suddenly writhed and she struggled with her anger. She turned from them swiftly and bounded down the hall until she started sprinting and bursted out the front and into the snow in a frenzy of rage and grief. Through the snow she treaded restlessly, her breath foggy and her vision red as tears streamed down her face.

"DAMN IT!" She whaled, furiously whipping them away, until she finally tripped and fell into the snow flat on her face. Its icy embrace cooled her red and over heated body as she found her self weeping into its fluffy flakes tickling her rose-colored nose and dampening her hair. She stayed there a long time, howling at her misery. She had found someone had she thought… she couldn't even explain what she thought she was so confused. Grief and self pity streamed through her. Self pity because she had really accepted that she had been a flaw, it made sense in a twisted sort of thought. Everything she had hated about her life had pointed to it, and her double had said so. It had clicked together. Grief because she knew why she was nothing and knew why she had been different from all her others, the same thing that left her wishing to be in an anime world from the very beginning. She didn't belong here. Turning in the snow she forced her bracelet out and waited for it to do something. It laid dead on her arm, no sparks or glow. She snorted annoyed and stood up and started walking toward what she thought might be the city, maybe she could find some fortune teller to get the thing to work.

            When she found the road she and ran down it, feeling guilty that she was thinking about only herself, and started to wonder what was happening back at the house. Why she was running she still had no clue, probably because there wasn't anything better to do. Taking off the sweater, and straightened out her black tank top, as she kept running, thinking mostly. Bill and Bakura was hurt, Ammon was clueless about how he should act with everyone, Yugi, Joey, Tristan, and Mokuba were confused, Joey has no clue what Marie has done to him, the now three evil doubles were free, Brian and Kyle were at the house doing god knows what, and she was running away from the house trying to go home. What a horrible day this had become.  

            When she got into the city she slowed down and caught her breath, and just started to wander. It's wasn't a huge blur like it had been in the car chase in her last visit, she could actually look at what was going on. The only bad thing about that is so could everyone else. She got various looks from random adults and teens, probably because she looked like a mess. She bet they thought she had gotten into some gang fight or something, while walking the sidewalks around her to each destination, through the huge towers of concrete and glass windows that spiraled far above their heads. Ann rarely had ever set foot on a sidewalk in the city; usually she was in a car and only passing though. When she was on the ground it was for school and fieldtrips, were no couldn't really explore at all. She looked up in awe of the skyscrapers and traffic, business men walking here and there, random people her age and older just hanging out. It was only once one of them had the nerve to wish at her. Why they had even bothered was just plain weird, but she flipped them off all the same and kept walking. She passed a place full of flowers at some point after and casually picked a bright orange one as she passed, and then had some guy chase her away from it because you weren't even allowed to smell the flowers. It was turning more and cruddier, until she recognized something she had seen before.

            Kaiba Land. Ann sweetdropped at the sign but admired the blue eyes dragons next to it. It was kind of weird really, to know Kaiba didn't act that stuck up…well, maybe he did but that wasn't the point. Still… she did feel kind of bored and didn't have anywhere else to go… plus there would be some dueling to watch… 

            She stood in the middle of the entrance and walked through the crowds slowly, looking up at the tall walls and many escalators, it was kind of like a mall. She had got in with out paying. Those security guys really listen to you when you say you're a friend of Kaiba's and you threaten to call him because they won't let you in. Kaiba must really put his employees through hell in the average work day. She stared up at the huge dueling machines admiration, wishing they could do such things in her world. The guy that made one would probably get richer than Bill Gates, and that's pretty damn good. The fact no one was staring was comforting, of course expect Kaiba's employees, who were sweating bullets while she took a look around. She looked over the edge of the escalator bored, since she didn't have any dueling cards and the duels were plain and increasingly dull as it went through. Anyone that looked like they would be defeated were crushed, it was a small change that was really tedious after a while. Instead, she found herself trying to open the private dueling doors while she was not being watched. Many of them were locked to her disappointment, until she opened one with the numbers 3283. At fist the knob was stuck but it finally cracked open, making that noisy creek you hear in movies when the person is attacked by some kind of monster. This didn't happen of course. She poked her head into the crack slowly. Inside the place was mostly deserted, but two people were standing in the dueling machines and what looked like they were finishing the battle. One of them was this guy with lavender hair and a red cap on, wearing a green button up shirt and a grey t-shirt underneath with the smuggest look on his face. The other was some poor kid that was getting his butt kicked. It looked boring, but she was sick of walking around and saw that there were tons of sapphire seats to sit in. 

            She sat down boredly in the middle of the crowded chairs and looked down at some kind of dinosaur with three heads charging at some little imp on the field. The red capped guy's voice was really annoying, and sounded really full of himself, almost worse that Kaiba, almost.

"Now, King Rex finish him!"  The Rex roared with all three heads and bit the small goblin and killed it, whipping out the rest of the guy's life points. She felt bad for the kid; he had to lose to some jack ass, made her a bit mad as the kid left the room, dishearten. It was then the guy looked up in the audience and saw her.

"HEY! What are you doing up there!? I thought this was a private room?!"

"It is. I'm just bored." She shouted down at him. He was silent a moment.

"I'm Rex, who are you?!"

"None of your DAMN business pal!" She didn't know why she was being such a bitch today, maybe because everything in her life was going to shit. The guy started to climb the stairs to her seat fuming when the door was suddenly opened by an enraged Seto Kaiba. He snapped his attention up at them and found his vocal chords as he pointed to them.

"YOU GET DOWN HERE…NOW!" The tone of his voice was fearsome, but at this time Ann didn't mind to dance with danger, she got up and started down past Rex's worried face and grabbed him by the shoulder, dragging him down with her, just to cause some more confusion.

"Yeah?" She asked him jadedly, yawning at the smoke that was pouring from his ears and red face. She knew Rex was looking at him wide-eyed in shock at how pissed off he seemed and Ann's cool way of taking it.

"YOU DO NOT, DO NOT, LIE TO ANY OF MY PERSONAL, EVER!" She looked at him dryly, surprised inside of her that he had gotten so infuriated, but not letting it seep into her face.

"I'm going to go." She replied calmly and walked out the door, Rex following her because no one should ever have to deal with Kaiba as pissed as that unless they deserved it. Walking down the hall fast Rex seemed to regain his wits with the color in his face.

"You _know_ Seto Kaiba?"

"Yeah, and he can be a real bastard, as well as a handful, and a royal pain." She felt herself glowering at this day she was having.

"Well, yeah… I know some people in _very_ high places too…" He was trying to gloat with her, it was weird for her and she was too pissed off to listen to his bad mouthing.

"Yeah, just shut your mouth and leave me alone now…" He didn't stop following her when she left; he kept talking to her like she hadn't said anything at all. Mostly acting stuck up, but boasting type of haughtiness; it made her increasingly sick as she kept on.

"That and I met this guy called Marik and he has me looking for some bitch…" She almost stopped at that, but instead she let it pass the best she could with out any expression but a question.

"Wasn't the guy's name Malik?" He looked at her surprised.

"No, he said his name was Marik… have you met him before?"

"No, actually I'm impressed you could even talk to him." Ann covered up. His face beamed to her dissatisfaction.

"Although he did say that guy was annoying…it sounded like it was his brother or something…"

"He has a brother? I thought he only had a sister…"

"I thought you said you didn't know the guy…"

"I don't… who's this girl you're looking for?"

"I don't know, it started with an A…"

"Ann?" He looked at her astonished.

"Yeah! That was it! How did you know?" 

"Because that's my name." She immediately punched him in the face and tripped him to the best of her ability, hoping he would just stay there, and started running. God this day was just getting worse and worse.

BookDragon: "8 pages are enough I hope…"

Bill: "Yeah for a chappy… and another cliffy?"

BookDragon: *shrugs* "If you want to think of it like that… it's only for a week."

Bill: "Please review guys, maybe if she gets enough of them she'll update sooner…"


	7. SAY WHAT!

BookDragon: "Hey it's been another week…"

Bill: "So she came back with another chappy!"

BookDragon: "I find it easier to write it over the week instead of craming it into one whole day, it comes out better that way."

Bill: "If something doesn't make sense blame her."

BookDragon: *rolls eyes* "Okay, I don't own Yu-gi-oh, even though I kind of wish I did, be prepared it's like eight or nine pages!" 

Chapter 7: SAY WHAT?!

            This was getting ridiculous. Ann thought annoyed by Rex's persistence about chasing her, holding his nose due to a bad nose bleed she had caused him. She was having her own blood problems though. It seems with her heart pounding in her chest with adrenalin mixed into it, her hand wasn't healing very well; the blood was gusting from the palm of her hand almost like water from a fire hose. 

"I should've got stitches…" She muttered breathing hard, trying to stop the bleeding by creating a fist and tightening the stained red cloth. She gritted her teeth at the snitch growing in her side and kept running the best she could, wishing she had joined cross country, well…not really, but it would've paid off. She kept up the run, slowly trying to get faster to loose him, but still getting increasingly tired. The sun pierced red light into her eyes as she followed the sidewalk running toward the glowing haft circle, wondering where the hell she could get away and take a breath. He had gotten so close that he could've jumped and grabbed her shirt and took her down easily, why he hadn't was unknown, but hey, she was glad he didn't. Wondering where the hell she could get away and take a breath. He had gotten so close that he could've lunged and grabbed her shirt and took her down easily, why he hadn't was unknown, but hey, she was glad he didn't. Instead they were both running and running and running, this was the worst day ever.

            Abruptly she turned the nearest street corner and found a stretch of deserted road and what looked to be the ocean waves hitting the poles all the way at the end of it. It appeared she had just found another familiar place. It was the same ocean Yami had taken Tea to during the "date" episode. It was both a relief and creepy at the same moment.  Rex made a grab for her arm, but missed at Ann's sudden burst of speed she mustered. She watched the ocean come closer and closer to her in her bouncy vision until she slammed against the pole and ducked as Rex had a swipe at her, she sneaked out from under his arm to a building behind him, a grand one at that, with a huge marble stair case and columns on the front of it. She bounded up the stairs clumsily, sweating bullets and clutching the snitch in her side that felt to be the size of Texas and slowly scrambled up the steps. Her heart pounded in her ears loudly as her speed decreased, climbing up and up, making her want to throw up right there. She didn't. She made it to the stairs and was relieved to find a glass door, and ran into it. Unfortunately, it was locked. She pounded on it desperately and turned to find Rex on the third to last step, grinning at the relief she couldn't get away. She was dead. 

Then, amazingly, the door's hinges squeaked and the door opened easily under her grasp. She fell into the room hard and flipped over to the open door quickly. Rex's look faded fast and made a grab for the door but instead had it slammed into his face. Ann never saw anyone drop so fast in her life. Watching his body go to the ground like a ton of bricks to the side of her foot, still pressed hard on the glass door at closing it, she heaved in the air in a panicked manner, watching the limp body cautiously from the other side of the glass. He didn't move at all, for what seemed like hours that she watched. Getting bored, she looked around after a very long time of just staring and being sure he was probably out cold she opened the door, or tried to. It wouldn't budge. She pulled it again and found it jerked her arm back. Groaning and increasingly annoyed she placed her foot of the wall and pulled the door handle with all her strength. It was stubbornness door she had ever come across in her life. Puffing breaths she tried everything to open it and get out of here, she didn't want the owner of the place to come across her in the morning, to find she had broken in and couldn't get out. Deciding she'd have to break the door with her foot, she lifted her sneaker and froze at a quiet mutter. 

She turned around quickly and discovered that she was in a museum, in the Egyptian part of it, and a head of her was a bream of bright light coming from the wide hallway in the corner of the room. Her eyes darted to the things in the glass cases, to the light, and to the door. Her jaw tightened as the voices seemed to whisper from somewhere, nipping at her curiosity. She started forward at it, letting the callings win as she went along with it.

"This is _really_ stupid Ann…" She told herself, but didn't stop her legs from going forward, following the light to a roped off door. Being braver than she thought she was, she lifted the yellow rope and ducked under it and pierced through the ajar door. She opened it a bit more when she found it was only dark steps leading down farther into the light, perplexed she kept going down, slowly remembering about Yami and Tea going down a similar stair case.

"Yes, yes, I _know_ the world is in unbalanced! We need one of the doubles to come to this world to even it…"

"We can't do that! That would cause more chaos!" Ann listened to the growing voices a bit frightenly, but found her feet wouldn't listen to her any more, they were too eager to find who she thought was down here.

"Why bring a double of the girl there would be more evil in the world, you know that! It would cause more of an imbalance!" She swallowed uneasily at the male voice she knew to be Shadi's yelling loudly.  He sounded close enough to touch, as thought on the last step, eyes locked on the opening of the brightly lit door, suddenly hearing foot steps coming to the door. 

"Time to go…" She uttered quickly and tried to make a leap back up the stairs; her legs refused. Her brown eyes widen at her feet, to the on coming human shadow through the door, and back to her feet panicked.

"Shit!" She took her leg with her hands and stop at someone's shoes in her line of vision. She slowly looked up to white robes, to his Millenium Ankh, and to his tan horrified face. She was immediately taken by the callor of her shirt and lifted off the ground easily by his powerful grip on her, looking completely angry he spun on his heel and took her back into the room, charging furiously. She was taken by surprise at his amount of force and painfully squinted in the sudden brightness around her, noting Malik's sister as a darken object looking at her surprised. She could only glance at her a moment when his fists dropped her onto the ground hard.

"KAKRA! YOU KNEW DEATH LAYS HERE! WHY HAVE YOU COME?!" His voice was commanding, deep and commanding, but humble. Ann looked up at him in confusion at the tone, staring into navy blue eyes looking down at her saving the puzzlement.

"I'm not Kakra." She replied stiffly on the floor, sitting up gradually, rubbing her head were it had hit hardest. His tan face looked her over sternly as the look slowly changed to unbelieving. Ann sighed, recognizing she'd have to prove it now, and took a large amount of air.

"Your name is Shadi, you watch over the millenium items to make sure the future does not go a miss. You're met the pharaoh at least once, during the finals on Kaiba's blimp. You spoke to Yugi Motto, and saved Tristan's and Dugan's life while you where there, and I can tell you they we're definitely grateful. Anyway, you told him you lead Pegasus to the tablet with his image on the tablet with the Egyptian god cards carved into it. He then created them to find he had no control and sealed them away with you, Isis Ishta, older sister of Malik…or Marik… I don't know the difference right know. They both and T.R and Kakra are trying to either kill me or capture me, one of the two, and now I'm trying to get the hell out of here to just go home to my own world. Is that good enough?" She took a huge gasp of air and looked at him irritated. He blinked at her surprised and yielded a tiny grin on his lips. 

"No. You're definitely not…Annora I presume?"

"Just Ann thank you…"She hated her full name. It sounded way too girly…then again Ann wasn't exactly manly either. She kind of wished that her mother's name was Annora too, then she could've had some kind of cool nick name like A.J or something, but no she was stuck with just Ann. It was then realization swept into her mind.

"Hey, wait a minute; you guys know my name…" She stood up quickly, and looked at both stern faces looking at her plainly.

"Oh no, no WAY! I'm not doing listening to any "Save the world" bull shit! Where's the exit?" She yelled at them furiously; both of them looked at each other uncertainly. Ann knew what they were thinking.

"Look, when you live in a world were Yu-gi-oh is one of the most popular animes in the whole world and you're a kid that like cartoons, you tend to learn a few things…I unfortunately know about you guys, and you're mission in life. Now, if you don't mind I'm going to go-" She felt the point of the Ankh press against her forehead, making her stop talking immediately.  Shadi somehow had gotten behind her, Ann felt stupid not to expect that, he always did have that way of disappearing and reappearing in places.

"Oh shit." She said annoyed before he entered her mind, seeing bright light, and awaking her somewhere she found familiar yet strange. Everything was clearing than usual, the grass and the sky mostly. She woke up to a lush green meadow, sitting Indian style, looking at the one huge tree branching out to different types of doors, most of them small, but three stood out the most, in the light blue clouded sky, an a occasional gray cloud here and there. The wooden door stood firm and tall, unmoving in plain air above the blades of green; and Shadi stood by the trunk of the tree, looking at them, wondering which to open first. She stood up irritably and walked over as he opened the right of the three doors first. Mist poured out of it, voices and random pictures floating around him, filling her place instantly, and making her even angrier.

"What do you _think_ you're DOING?!?!?" She yelled at him, but he ignored her and watched the images fly around them. Her sister giggling as she did some kind of weird impression at eight years old. A kite flapping joyously above the sparkling waves on the ocean water with a pair of strong hands holding her tiny smooth ones, she had been three, flying kites with her father. Sitting in front of a large television, watching Yu-gi-oh eagerly, that had been a month ago. Holding her baby brother for the first time in her life, she had been four. She watched all her happy beautiful memories stream out of the door annoyingly, prefect in her mind. Shadi looked upon them plainly for a few horrible minutes, infiltrating her own private place with out her permission. He shut the door carefully with a prefect jerk and moved to the middle one, she made a move to stop him but he ignored her yet again and twisted the knob. Foggy snarled out, unleashing screams and shouts of anger. Her sister glaring at her screaming I hate you at the top of her lungs, she was ten. Crying her eyes out in one of those rubber tire paths little kids crawl through, being rejected by a boy see thought she had loved, she was five. Holding the same boy into a fence by her throat angrily, she was still five years old. Watching the horrible look on another girl's face at something she did, she was eleven. Ann turned from them angrily, closing her eyes tightly and holding her ears, trying to forget them and the guilt they each possessed, screaming.

"SHUT THE DOOR!" She shouted, making him shut it quickly, noting her almost curled up in a ball on the ground shaking. He looked down at her pityingly, as she slowly stood again, knowing he was staring at her, and kept reminding herself that it was over.

"Guilt." He said to her carefully, as she dusted the green grass blades off her jeans, trying hard to ignore him.

"You are different from you're others." She swallowed her rage in a thick air bubble, and looked at him with fury gradually taking her over. She slowly lifted his hand to enter the third door, but Ann got there first. Spanning out in fort of the door, holding her arms out, she glared at him.

"Okay, you can search through my bad and good memories, piss me off, and enter my mind like a door mat, but _these, I wouldn't let you go in here. Now get the hell out of here." She raged at him, fuming uncontrollably at him as it suddenly started to storm and blow at him enraged._

"…what is in there?" He asked over the wind. She looked away from him, avoiding eye contact as she thought to tell him or not. No one knew about this in her head, and she never wanted anyone to know.

"Look…I'm not Kakra, I'll listen to you're stupid speech and do whatever you want, just leave this alone…"

"WHAT is in there?" He persisted in a commanding voice, looking down at her seriously.

"Daydreams." She sighed, "Now please leave." He took a step toward the door. She glared fully at him; her eyes threateningly clear to him, on the brink of growling at him. She spoke in the lowest and sternest voice she had within her, sounding very much like Kakra's voice.

"If you take one more footstep… and I swear I will kill you..." He froze his stance, looking at her stunned at her in the same twisted moment. Long moments ticked by at her warning, making her more on edge than before and getting ready to lunge at him if necessary; he just kept staring at her until he recoiled and left in a puff of dense swirling smoke.  She relaxed for only a moment, when she was called back.

            The moment her eyes flashed open she took Shadi by his robes with a huge amount of force and immediately threw him to the ground enraged.

"IF YOU EVER DO THAT AGAIN…I'LL…I'LL…"  Her face was crimson and going plum as she shouted hoarsely at him. Isis was looking from one to the other blinking as Shadi got to his feet and dusted himself off gradually when someone strode into the room staring straight at him strictly. He wore blue jeans and a striped shirt, with a golden staff at hand, and a sloppy job combing his hair. It was Ammon. She was slightly relieved to see him here, somehow in the short period of time she spent with him, even through being betrayed, she somehow trusted him subconsciously. Probably because he looked so much like Bill. And Bill was chatting at his heels happily and immediately shut up when both men stood looking at each other in such a stance.

"Ammon."

"Shadi…" His voice was soft, but somehow still had a bit of a harsh sound to it. They shock each other's hands stiffly and jerked apart in the next second, both looking as unyielding as ever. Ann looked from the both of them confused, wondering why they looked so mad at each other. She guessed her won rage must be contagious, after a few minutes of thought and her eyes slowing with tiredness, until Ammon spoke loudly in a cruel voice.

"She was under my guard."

"You let her leave the house, she came here of her own free will."

"She didn't have a choice when you locked her into this place!"

"She was in danger."

"In danger from that pile of thoughtless flesh lying at the door?! That's up surd."

"Not when she barely escaped from the boy." Ammon stamped his foot.

"BARELY ESCAPED?! I would think she would take him to the underworld!"

"She hates to fight." Shadi stood expressionless staring at him boredly as Ammon looked for a clue of bluffing on him but didn't find any sign of one at all. He turned to Ann disbelieving and fuming with anger.

"He isn't telling the truth…correct?" She rubbed her foot into the creamy colored tiles, interesting in the floor when she answered.

"Not really…sure I like kick boxing…but I never wanted to actually fight anyone…" Ammon slapped a hand over his face and started pacing around.

"RA! You aren't anything _like_ Kakra! Not even the good characteristics! Do you have _any_ sense of honor?!" Looked at him furiously, finding this a bit unfair.

"Hey! I don't want to kill anyone! Besides, this is a time were you're supposed to verbally talk yourself out of that situation…" Ammon turned to her purple faced.

"VERBALLY?! What are you going to do?! Go to Kakra again and say, 'Oh! I'm sorry I can't fight, let's talk it out over a nice cup of tea!' You'll be dead faster that you can think of any other rubbish comes to your head." Ann was silent at this mocking voice. 

"Then WHAT? 'OH LOOK I'M DRIFTING TO MY DEATH! You be a dear and pick me up? Oh no, not that! Don't suspense of my small mind! My small little fake daydreams I keep there! For I'm-" She punched him in the face after this and sent him down to the ground, with his eye know turned the darkness plum color she had ever seen.

"IS THIS ANY BETTER?! DO YOU _LIKE_ RUTHLESS PEOPLE! MAYBE I SHOULD JUST KICK THE SHIT OUT OF EVERYONE THAT PISSES ME OFF! OH! OH! I KNOW! HOW ABOUT I JUST TAKE YOUR STAFF AND START USING YOU AS A PIN CUSHION! HOW WOULD YOU LIKE THAT?! VIOLENCE IS DEATH IN MORE WAYS THAN YOUR LIFE! THAT'S THE TRUTH!" She spun away from him bitterly to Yugi, Joey, Tristan, Tea, Bakura, and Mokuba staring at her white faced at her in disbelief and found herself turned away from there gawking looks pitifully. Ammon got up off the ground quickly, stuffing cloth up his nose as Shadi turned his head back to Ammon, with thick hoped earrings swinging, as his navy eyes fixed upon his strict face.

"She will attack if provoked. Satisfied?" Ann did dare turn around and hit him again, but instead stood stiffly, looking as if suddenly interested in the creamy ceiling paint. Bill nudged Ammon in the side painfully, making him wince as Bill looked at Shadi almost in awe of him as Yugi walked up to him politely and started speaking to him as if he was an old friend.

"Can you tell us what the problem is, Shadi?" His navy blue eyes casted to Ammon clutching his side, to the group of teens looking puzzled, to Bill looking at him like he was a famous actor, and Ann staring at the roof intently and listening to him.

"Yes, Kakra had caused a huge disturbance in the cosmos." Bill looked at him confused.

"How exactly?" Ammon regained his composer and looked at his twin glaringly, a bit angry with him.

"Picture the worlds as a beaded string," he said in a huge puff of air, "the worlds are the beads and the string is the shadow realm, connecting them together as a different dimension. If any of the beads are chipped, it is only a mater of time until the whole bead cracks and the whole structure is flawed. As when Kakra is freely moving around in this place in a body of her own. With out Ann's." 

"Then how come our world isn't flawed when I'm here?" Ann asked him suddenly curious.

"Because, our world and your world have a strong connection being held with magic to keep the worlds stable when it had split apart, almost two beads being held together by extra string in the structure, it does not matter which world you are in as long as you still exist somewhere in the whole thing." Ammon said, sounding like a history teacher on a Friday after noon, trying to make a point. It did explain a lot, Yami and Yugi, and Bakura and TombRobber.  Bill looked baffled.

"Well then how come they can walk around freely in my house?!"

"That's my doing, its more magic on the house, it was my idea to do it in your sleep, while we we're connect of course."

"But what about TombRobber?" Everyone was silent.

"He has half the ring in his position. Enough magic to give himself a body. Kakra as the whole sword so it is easy for her." Bakura spoke softly behind Bill, making him jump in surprise at his soft voice. Shadi nodded at his thinking as Isis smiled at catching on so fast.

"How do we fix this?"

"Either put Kakra back in a hibernating mode and now connect both halfs of the ring, or connect the ring and place Kakra in her body if we are unable to make her sleep again. Killing her is not an opposition; her death is not by the hands of any of you." Ann's eyes went wide in horror, at such a thought, wondering what it would be like to have someone evil in your own head, infiltrating everything in your mind to use against you. That would be a living nightmare. Bakura when through that every day, a thought almost shouted at her from the back of her mind. Feeling stupid at how bad she felt about something that hadn't even happened yet and how Bakura must be suffering in silence all these years. 

"Are you going to take this task, Annora?" She blinked at her the sound of her whole name annoyed.

"Yes. It's not like I have a choice."

"Good. Ammon, you're to ad her with anything in your power," He looked disgruntled but swallowed down a huge breath of protest and nodded watery eyed from the pain as it slowly slipped down his throat into his stomach.  

"I will be helping too." Yami had over heard the conversation through Yugi's ears and was now standing tall as usual as Shadi immediately bowed to him.

"If you wish it my King." Ammon looked at him astonished and almost got down on his knees, but found Bill holding the callor of his shirt and unable to get down. Ann downed a puff of laughter at his disappointment as Yami didn't even make eye-contact with him.

"And now, we must depart Shadi. Please let us meet again in the near future."

"Yes my pharaoh…" Yami turned to leave when Isis interjected.

"Please wait a moment!" He turned to her gaze lordishly with a clam stare.

"Please, bring my brother Malik back." His name set Ann's mind into more confusion.

"Malik? Some one told me it was Marik." Isis blinked at her mystified.  Yami didn't look surprised when Bakura tuned in.

"He's being controlled by his aibou..." Ann turned to him wide-eyed.

"WAIT A MINUTE! Marik is Malik's double? HOW do you know what?!"

"I've learned a bit of magic through my double using the ring…we've been able to speak very few times…" Bakura answered her peacefully, a very tiny smile creeping onto his lips.  Bill smirked at him, knowing all along that Bakura had a lot more going on in his head than anyone else, as they left at a slow pace, wondering what the other was thinking. Ann was feeling pretty sick at all of this, having someone search through your most precious thoughts, and then to be handed something like this. Yes, she had wanted the task, and somehow she'd get herself to go out with a bag.

            Bill hadn't brought his car, so it was a while waiting for a bus to show up at such an hour of the night, pitch black except the balls of light in the street lights around them, only hinting at the nine bodies walking on the street, with sober faces.

"You know what we need?" Bill finally spilled out his mouth with his regular tone of voice. Joey and Tristan's heads went up at such a tone, daring to believe it might just have to do with free food, which happened a lot when Bill sounded like that.

"What?"

"Let's go to a party! We need to get piss drunk!" Ammon looked at him confused as Tea immediately protested.

"You're too young to even think about drinking!" she shouted rather shocked at such a thought, Yugi now back and looking at him wide-eyed in disbelief with Bakura, both stopped dead in their tracks at that small out burst. Ann didn't say anything, actually thinking it might do her some good, but not willing to admit it. Mokuba was standing there knowing Kaiba would kill him if he came home drunk at his age, at any age really.

"Drunk?" Ammon looked at him with baffled coffee eyes, making Bill laugh a bit.

"You know, taking a large amount of beer or wine into your system? I know you guys had beer in Egypt back then." Ammon looked at his fifteen year old aibou with surprise in his clear eyes, knowing that somehow he was rubbing off on his counterpart, in a bad sense.

"No Bill…it's too late anyway. Sleep will do the same thing that beer will, and I know you're weary by now, let me take over the walking…all of it." Bill looked at his strict stare and sighed since he didn't have a choice when Ammon made up his mind, and closed his eyes, letting himself dissipate into Ammon, like bathwater seeping through a wash cloth. Mokuba gawked a moment at it, making Yugi sort of giggle at the awe in his face, as they all kept walking, the others seeing it so much they didn't mind it at all. Ann changed her gaze away up into the clear gray vivid stars shimmering over her head like sun on the wavy water, wondering when in the early morning that they would arrive at Bill's house, so she could collapse on a couch or bed, bed preferably, but it didn't matter, she needed to escape this reality. It was funny really, in the past she had always fled to this world in her mind to get away from her daily life, now she was running from this world; would she run from everything happening to her? It had always worked before, but now she knew she wouldn't be able to run off from this situation, like a coward. The only source of bravery she had ever been proud of was when she had attacked T.R in Bill's body, and even now she found herself wince as her memory replied itself like a movie in her mind. She hadn't hated herself that much at the time, but now it was just getting easier by the moment, but even that was wrong. Like this she stumbled through her own mind, lost, alone, and hurt from the others as they talked about which direction to take to get back to the cabin. She had watched her own world through a small window in her mind, looking in instead of experiencing it, protecting herself. God, if only she knew that wouldn't have worked. She felt herself smile at how screwed she had become in these short days, it was a huge joke, that soon would end.

"Are you alright?" Yugi's voice shattered the images in her mind with that small polite tone. She looked at him puzzled as he held out a white piece of cloth to her, and suddenly noticing her face was wet with tears as she had the stupid grin on her face. She took it stiffly and whipped away the wetness, trying to get her voice not to sound stuffed up when a person cries.

"Yeah, I'm fine." She told him gruffly, turning her skin red from the pressure she was using to get rid of the fluid covering her checks. Not looking at his face, aware that he was looking at her considered.

"We went through the same thing, it was tough, but we got through it, I know you can too." He was talking about him and Yami, in a polite tone of worry to her, trying to comfort her, making her wonder.

"…Why do you care so much?" She asked him, her throat closing in on itself. He paused a moment, past the part that would make it seem like she was insulting him, and jumping to an answer.

"It's in my nature; I can't stand the thought of someone being hurt for something they don't deserve."

"You believe in justice, god, you really do have the heart of a lion." Why she was talking about this was weird, it just she guess she needed to say it. He smiled at her for such a compliment, his eyes bright with the light of the moon. 

"I have my friends to back me up; with out them I'd be no where."

"You are so lucky Yugi, you were always right about that, you fight for the right thing every time, and I envy you." She looked up at the moon with him, knowing the sky would be gray with light flakes of snow floating in space around Bill's home, ignoring Yugi's unfathomable look on his pale face.

"I wish I could be like you, to live in the good ideas like you. I try to fool myself into doing something like you, trying to be like you and do something truthfully good, but finding that every other one of myself going against such ideas, knowing I'm royally screwed. They were when I was sure I was good for the world, I was so young, the best days I ever had." She took a large breath of air, watching the moon follow them as they kept forward on the side walk.

"…But…it's not so bad." She turned to his violet orbs expecting for a speech but found them relaxing under the glance, knowing she was out of the woods and in the open.

"That's all I do, I try with all my strength to fix the world the best I can, you have the right state of mind, I'm relieved at it, but it will take you some time to patch yourself up, you've been running for a long time…haven't you?"

"Yes…I suppose I have." She glanced over to Tea, walking ahead of them slowly, just enough to know she was listening to them, and then to Yugi's longing purple eyes at the moon, dreaming of something, and to her own pale hands near her face. Slowly dipping her hand she took his wrist and made his hand meet with Tea's and quickly drifted away from them on ahead, knowing Tea was looking at him surprised, and he was waking up to a shock with rose colored checks, their eyes meeting. That was the first time she had ever decided to step in to a relationship like that, she hoped it would work. It was plain as day that they both cared for each other very much. Hopefully she had made a good choice. When no sound came from behind her back and somehow small steps jerked nervously she sensed that Tea had taken his hand fully, accepting his touch. Ann smirked despite of herself and buried her hands into her pockets and let the wind stroke her brown curls lovingly, taking in the whole night with each step, listening to the words just spoken go behind the good memories door, in the cricketing from her own head, like in all cartoons at night. Her heart felt lighter at those words and the small chirping making her grin wider at how funny it was. Yes, maybe she was still hiding from her own world, but she was making a life in the second one. For that whole night of the journey home, she felt like she was the good child all those years ago. It felt good to be that way again.

BookDragon: "This is the end of the chappy."

Bill: "Awweee, she went all mushy at the end…"

BookDragon: "To think I usually don't like to do that. Please review, I know this is confusing, I'm trying to reflect what's going on inside Ann's head to explain what she will do later on with the characters. Please review!"     


	8. Lurking in the Corridors

BookDragon: "Hey, it's been really hectic at the house. Mostly my relatives showing up 'cause of my mom's accident. It's been driving me crazy."

Bill: "When she says crazy, she means pissed off irritated crazy."

BookDragon: -_-U

Bill: "Anyway, on with the fic."

Chapter 8: Lurking in the Corridors

            Ann blinked her coffee colored orbs confused as all hell. She stood in an unusual place, beyond unusual. Her bare pale feet stood upon the icy floor as she only stood in the clothes she had stolen from Bill's room last night, a yellow t-shirt that said I Heart Duel Monsters on the front and on the back read Poke'mon Sucks, with these blue pants decorated with the back of a dueling card pattern all over them. Her hair still straggled in the wind, looking like a rat's nest or worse if you can picture it, but she ignored it and watched the clouds dancing around her, wrapping her like light gray sheets, looking slightly like smoke.  The floor seemed to be a giant mirror, reflecting the bottom of her numbing feet, and her hair tossing around. Her eyes with the slight breeze, just catching a familiar figure slowly walking toward her, a dark hand stretching toward her when her eyes flew open to Brian's olive face grinning at her.

"GAH!" She fell out of the large bed in surprise as he started to crack up in front of her, in a mess on the floor, being smothered with large fluffy blankets.

"Man, you shouldn't seen the look on your face!" She snorted at him annoyed, and stood up in the clothes from her dream, hopefully it was, and looked curiously around for Bill or Kyle.

"Where-"

"Bill's at another seminar with Pegasus, what the hell he's doing I don't know, and Kyle said something about surfing the net…Mokuba showed him that site, so their laughing their heads off. I got bored so I went to see if you were up…" He stopped and looked at her hair, making her a bit angry as she patted it down.

"Yeah, I know, do you know where the bathroom is?"

"Yeah, but you can't use it." She looked at him slightly pissed off, and scoffed at him.

"Why the hell not? Billy rules?"

"No, Bakura's been in there for like two hours, he ran in their when Bill showed him all those Fan girl stories. You can hear him scrubbing if you listen well enough, god I feel bad for him…" Ann shook her head annoyed, whipping the sleep from her eyes boredly, yawning widely and asked him if there was another bathroom she could use.

"Yeah, it's upstairs, but you got to do something weird to the door…what was it again?... something about banging on it and then slamming your head into the frame…" He looked at Ann's horrified glance, "Yeah, I know, it sounds pretty weird…but you _do_ know Bill can be like that…or is it that Ammon guy?"

"You met him?"

"Yeah, in a bad mood…I think he threw a fireball at the door when I tried to open it. Bill says he's not a morning person…anyway, I think I just heard Joey and Tristan get back from the food run…let's hope they didn't eat it all on the way back…" He left her standing puzzled in the middle of the tan walled room, rubbing her toes in the feathery carpet as she jerked the closet open and started looking though the clothes it had to offer, since she felt her stank, really bad, she dully remembered shoving them under the bed to get them out of her sight so she could sleep. Walking through the closet about twenty times, finding nothing but shirts and dresses, the room was defiantly for the female guests, probably made for Tea, Mai, or Serenity. Most definitely Serenity, now that she thought about it. Shivering at the picture of them being a couple made her grab a long black downy sweater, puffy and extremely soft, and drag the only pair of dress pants. They looked a lot like those pants jeans wear, puffing out all frilly on the bottom and a light sky blue, making her sick to her stomach to know she would be wearing them in a little while, after she cleaned herself of course.  She crept out of her room slowly, and down the hall quickly and found the bathroom door open and free. Thank god. 

            The room was still steamy and was the whole time she bathed, and when she dressed, and clawed all the snarls out of her hair, not noticing it was darker and tamer when it was wet. Walking out of the bathroom, her hair dripping a bit, she took a bit of a walk around the house, going up a flight of stairs, and opening random doors, finding mostly bed rooms, two other bathrooms a lot larger than the one she had just used, a dance floor, and finally one that she hear loud singing from the out side. Wondering if her ears were working right, she turned the knob easily, and peered into the room curiously, to find a shocker.

"…Today's music an 't got the same soul 

I like that old time rock 'n' roll 

Don't try to take me to a disco 

You'll never even get me out on the floor

In ten minutes I'll be late for the door 

I like that old time rock'n' roll!" Ann looked gawkingly at him. Yami turning the radio up to the highest setting, putting loads and loads of gel in his hair as he stared into his reflection, getting it perfectly pointed and bouncing up to the sky, mouthing the words on the radio. Putting a good guitar noise from his voice in every once in a while, making him look all the more embarrassing. Snorting with laughter she caught his immediately knocked the radio off in frenzy and looked at Ann, totally frantic.

"I was…uh…um…yeah…"

"I won't tell anyone…" She shivered, "…I'm just going to pretend that didn't happen…um…I'm guessing Yugi is definitely not here?"

"No, he's spending the day with Tea." Ann nodded expectedly, okay, that worked better than she had imaged. "So, I got the day to myself…you _won't_ tell him will you?" His violet eyes demanded her truthful answer that every moment.

"Oh no…never…cross my heart and hope to…never…ever." He looked puzzled at her.

"Is it really that bad?"

"…No…its just disturbing…I'm gonna go…um…I'm locking this door…bye..." He waved as she clicked the lock shut and closed the door fully. Shaking her head, completely dumbfounded at that one scene she was surprising in the back of her head, now speed walking down the hall, sputtering at it.

"God…you would've thought Yami could sing?!" She muttered under her breath as she stumbled onto another stair case. Wonderingly she let her feet take her up them, starting to wonder if there was infinite floors, it would be Bill's style, knowing Bill of course. But Ammon's? Bill was obviously in awe of Ammon, like he was of Shadi and Yami. That would probably never wear off, knowing Bill. She smiled at how much of an idiot he could be, it had just got funnier and funnier, he was the most animated of all of them, no wonder he was so comfortable in an Anime world. She walked down the pallid hall, reflecting the light and making the whole long path awake, eerily awake, like you could feel eyes on the back of her head. She was getting that creepy feeling again, like she defiantly wasn't suppose to be there, so getting smart she turned back and started toward the stairs, but found when she took a step forward, they leaped back. Blinking she started running after the fleeing stairs, always two feet in front of her, mocking her attempts of reaching them, even when she tripped forward and tumbled close to them, and stopped in the exact place where she had fallen. Getting irritated, she stood up and got the bright idea of walking toward them backwards, but only found them four feet away instead of two; she brought her face to her hands annoyed.

"Damn it." She mumbled, feeling all the more stupid, and found her bracelet still dead on her arm, so she only had the choice of going forward, which she knew she wasn't suppose to. Rather than sitting and letting someone find her in the  "out of bounds" she decided to check it out, walking by the long stretching doors, ever slim and made of some kind of wood, looking a lot like cedar. She tried to open only one of them, and it was locked, leading her to suspect not to waste any more of her time, assuming they were all locked she kept going up the hall, turning the corner, and up the next stretch of hall, to a stair case. She did this on every floor about five times, getting panicky and very tired, when suddenly out of the glow she heard a familiar voice.

"DAMN HIM!" It growled aloud, making her curiously turn the corner to find a red faced Kaiba pulling franticly on all the door knobs, with what Ann was almost sure she could see stream leaking out of his ears, she found herself sweat dropping at all his pissed off nonsense.

"Hey, don't bother I already tried." She yawned at him boredly, making his head spin upward to glare at her with surprise.

"What are you doing up here?"

"The same thing as you, being curious and disregarding Bill's rules, and trying to get the hell out." Ann told him boredly, "The only way out is up from here, from what I'm guessing…that or out a window."

"I already tried that an hour ago…you just keep falling until you grab the window sill." Kaiba spat annoyed as he removed her clenched white fists from the door irritated at Ann's look of astonishment.

"…have you tried any of those codes?" Kaiba glared at her.

"Yes…and I'm going to have a headache for a year, god I need an aspirin…" He pressed his eyes with his fingers, telling Ann it was pretty bad. Knowing Kaiba was always independent and powerful, or trying to look like it. It made her laugh sometimes in the middle of class when she thought back on it.

"What the hell are you smiling at?" 

"…Nothing…why are you even up here?"

"That is my own business…" Ann rolled her eyes annoyed

"That figures…Well, what now?"

"Well, _I'M_ going this way, tag along if you wish, if you desire the company." He started forward and turned the corner briskly, adjusting his callor while doing so, making sure to look very professional all the while. Ann slowly shook her head. Kaiba's company was on the line of hell, but she supposed Bill wouldn't be happy if he got into trouble with the magical sort. Let's face it. Kaiba's a real dunce when it came to magic. She followed him with her head hung low, knowing this was not going to be at all enjoyable.    

            It was silent all the way through the three hallways and four staircases, in the fourth hallway, the boards under their feet creaked horribly, like no one had stepped on the floor for ages, like the house was even old come to think of it. It was just plain weird. It was enough to feel how wrong it was to be there in the first place, and the fact it was slowly getting darker wasn't helping matters. The squeak of the boards numbed the sound of her heart beating in her ears, uneasily fixing her callor as Kaiba persisted easily, making her feel all the more stupid to be freaking out. Her fingers grew colder as the sweat slowly started she was so freaked, staring at the back of Kaiba's head, trying to calm herself when a hand suddenly rested on her shoulder. She immediately screamed like a little girl and spun around quickly, coming face to face with Yami wince at the loud scream she had made. She heard Kaiba groan a moment later from both his presence and her shout, as she clutched at her chest feeling edgy and pissed off.

"WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO THAT?!" She yelled at him, as he cleared his ears with his fingers, and spoke a bit too loud for being normal.

"I was being cautious..." The anger drained from her face abruptly to fear.

"…Cautious? Why?" He looked at her carefully through the dimness, his violet orbs striking like lightning in the darkness.

"...Egypt was a dangerous place…very dangerous…let's hope Ammon hasn't placed a few traps out…"  Kaiba rolled his eyes at him annoyed.

"Let's us go, we're not getting out any faster by just pushing carbon dioxide around." He kept forward fumingly, making Ann shrug as Yami walked forward in his stern yet superior stance, Ann just pursuing them both unsure of what else to do.

"…What do you remember about Egypt?" Ann asked confused when she thought about it further.

"Not really anything…just what I've been told…" Ann nodded, getting that it was only him that did not remember. She had heard that he had sealed his memory away when he locked the magic away to save the people; she wondered if he had even been told even that.

"Ammon says it was a treacherous time, where no one was safe, your world is calm compared to back then…or so Ammon had told me."

"And already it's a dog-eat-dog world, how much as Ammon told you?"

"…What I need to know for now is his words." Yami's voice sounded a bit feed up so she didn't continue with this subject, and instead, she stuffed her hands into the silky cloth pockets and started annoying at the puffed pants bottoms. It was silent again for a time, making her ears hurt with the buzz of it, until she scrummed to it's power gloomily.

"…So…was Bill still at the seminar when you left Kaiba?"

"Yes. He usually takes about six hours for each one. Which is usually four times a week…"

"What do you think he does for six hours?" Ann asked him curiously. 

"How the hell am I to know? I stay out of that business with that psycho…he should too if you ask me." It was true Peggy had turned a bit twisted, maybe he had changed…that or had Bill under some kind of charm. That would be hard with out his millenium eye. But he was ill, in his heart, and has been for a long time; there was nothing she could do about it. They kept forward through the steady growing gloom, Kaiba and Yami's shadows walking in the most serious manner, imprinted shadows moving swiftly on the walls, followed by her jerking nervous one, looking increasingly jumpy with each silent trot. She felt like a foolish child compared to them. It only made it worse when Yami just stopped in the middle of the hallway frozen a moment; he held his arm out to stop her behind him.

"Hold." His voice was calm and commanding, Kaiba made sense to listen to it, and stopped dead.

"What?"

"Did you hear that?" They were silent, the three pairs of ears working furiously at the dimness, Ann holding her breath at the lack of sound, becoming restless. Yami's breath was deep and steady, his violet eyes staring at the back of Kaiba's head, concentrating on his ears. Kaiba turned to his stare a few moments, with an irritated glare to them, crossing his arms immediately on the spin of his heel.

"…I have no time for childish games Yami, let's stop with act and keep on." He turned back quickly to his striding pattern, making Yami hesitate a moment, then start after him, Ann just ran after them both. Her eyes were wider and more alert at that brief listening period, feeling more and more unsafe as the light grew darker and darker. The corridor became longer and longer, after each pair of stairs. On the twentieth hallway it went completely dark. They were lucky that Kaiba that a packet of matches in his pocket. Yami tried to strike one several times, but ended up wasting about three of them when Kaiba forcefully took them back with a glare and lit it with a flick of his wrist, holding out in front of them, watching it quickly eat the rest of the wood. Afraid of disappearing light, she had never wanted to have a candle so badly in her own entire life, and looked to the door wishfully, catching a small glimpse of a swift shadow that didn't belong to any of them. Ann immediately flinched in response and almost screamed, swallowing it and taking in a quivering gasp. Yami turned to her, forcing a candle into her hands immediately, with the weirdest look covering his stern face. Blinking in surprise she held the green waxy texture in her shaky white hands, looking down at the heat of the dancing flames.

"…It's been following us for about five floors now." He told her calmly, holding a lit candle of his own, watching the shock twist to fear on her face.

"…What do you think it is?" Kaiba asked him boredly, not taking it seriously at all; being the average "I don't believe in this Magic bullshit" Kaiba. Ann just put her hand to her wrinkled forehead, getting already tired of his attitude at Yami's angry look.

"Nothing you would believe Kaiba…I doubt we will find our exit by the way we are traveling as well…we need to open the doors."

"How do we do that?" Her voice crept out timidly. Yami smiled at her shyly, reminding her a bit like a fox, as he pointed to her arm with total confidence, at the bracelet underneath the black fluffy material of her sweater.

"You'll use that." 

BookDragon: "Sorry for the cliffy guys, I'm still trying to work stuff out."

Bill: "Review please."


	9. Love notes

BookDragon: "I started writing this on paper in directed study, why I didn't start it on a computer I have no clue, it was a spur of the moment type of thing."

Bill: *looks at her confused* "Why the hell are you telling them this?"

BookDragon: "To keep my mind off of other things that I'm keeping myself from writing on this…"

Bill: "Right…"

BookDragon: "I'm having one of those WTF moments…something from the past… don't worry it'll past… um…on with the fic!" 

Chapter 9: Love notes

"Are you nuts?" She asked him, wondering if he really was crazy, "I can't do that!"

"Sure you can…"

"_NO_ I can't… it doesn't like to work for me." She told him slowly, embarrassed as she glanced at the light flickering on the wall from the fire, her toes digging into the carpet to warm them. Kaiba crossed his arms aggravated by this constant stop, go, stop, talk, go. He was getting pretty pissed off at this whole charade, tapping his jet black boot, like a disgruntled mother. Ann ignored him the best she could, keeping her eyes off him, staring straight at Yami, painfully taking in his curious look flickering in his eyes as he held out her peach colored palm, telling her to fork the bracelet over. 

Sighing, she unclasped it from her arm and pulled it out of her sleeve, noticing it glitter at her in the heat of the flame licking her checks as she let it fall into his hand. He studied it a moment, expanding his eyes fully to take in every detail as he shook it with a jerk of his wrist, kept gawking wonderously, and gave it back to her mystified.

"It should work. I don't know why it wouldn't…"

"Because it is just a bracelet you idiot! Let us move on and place this magic bull behind us." Kaiba spat at him, striding away at Yami's steady glare, protesting after him loudly in that deep angry voice. Ann didn't move from her spot, wondering to break up the fight or not, when she saw something quiet large move in the corner of her eye. A flick of a wing maybe? She stood motionless, feeling a few short periods of wind that shouldn't have existed in the enclosed space. Yami finally realized she was missing from their side and turned back to her, and stopped dead in his tracks, quickly tugging at Kaiba's shirt furiously until he spun on his heel enraged and gaped at what he was seeing, making Ann turn her head enough to see it through the corner of her eye, extremely nervous. And with good reason.

            A black figure loomed motionless in the middle of the hall, taking up most of the space, acting like a wall it's self, casting a large blacker shadow around them. It's coal colored wings ruffled a slight wind, combined with it's own rasping strong breaths through it's huge hooked beak, as a cruel shinning black claw about the size of a sickle dug into the carpeting, making some sort of tarring sound that made Ann quiver with fear, not at the sound but at the eyes. Fierce vibrant orange eyes, the color of bonfire flames, glared menacingly at them through the shadows it called home, burning glare piercing through their skin almost with silted pupils. Through the stormy gusts of breath they stood dead, gawking at the large beast.

"Don't move…" Yami told them in a calm voice, staying still as his tone echoed commandingly down the corridor, causing the huge bird type like monster to twitch and regrip that cruel beak. Kaiba kept the same cool posture, his hands in his pockets and completely still and silent, his jaw clenched nervously at the thing. Ann kept twitching and shaking under the steady watch of those flaming eyes of the shadow creature, flicking to each of the three bodies, thoughts flashing behind those eyes. Probably thoughts of which of them to kill first. Yami took a step back gingerly, still watching the fiery orbs sternly, to escape the creature through the door behind them. It was the only they had a chance of opening.

"On three…run." He growled out of the corner of his mouth two feet in front of Ann, now taking a step back with wide eyes, noticing the thing seeping a few talons into the rug closer to them. The step was large, making Ann panicky as her eyes darted wildly from its feet to its feathered bird like head, her eyes seeing more into the darkness, a pair of cat like hind-quarters of extra speed.

"One." God they were dealing with a griffin. Its tail flicked, curled on the left paw, it remained her of a cat tail flick when they were about to pounce when hunting. Ann started to wonder if it was hungry. This was getting worse and worse.

"Two." Kaiba quietly started fiddling with something in his trench coat pockets; she knew he was trying to find a logical reason for this thing to be stalking them, as Yami almost backed into him, his right shoe next to Kaiba's left boot, both keeping their composure in this tense situation. Ann was failing.

"THREE!" The sudden grip on her made her assume the thing had got her in its clutches and was about to rip her apart to dine on her screaming carcass, but found it instead to be Yami's hand clamped down on her shoulder dragging her away from the enraged monster, bounding after them swiftly. The candles were dropped and somehow put out not to cause a fire by them selves as they sprinted away from the thing that just leaped after them quickly. Her legs started working when the loudest high pitched shriek she had ever had the misfortune to hear echoed painfully around them, as Kaiba flung himself onto the door and stuck his fingers on the brass knob in a frenzy, keeping his stern face as he gave it a powerful tug. And found it locked. His eyes went wide on the edge of panic as Yami shortly slammed into him with Ann in pursuit. All of them collided with the door with a loud bang, scrabbling over it, as the creature bounded closer.

"We're gonna die." Ann founded herself saying, her head swinging back in the direction of the dangerous gaze of the orange orbs afraid as her fingers meet the surface of the knob quickly. With a sudden click the door flew open with the force of their weight, sending them tumbling onto the ground in a mess. Somehow, Yami got up through the muddled chaos and slammed his full weight down on the door, in time to catch the six black talons, cutting the side of the door frame as a loud squawking commenced. Kaiba scrambled upward to help him when Yami started to loose, the door jerking open enough to smack the surprised pharaoh and it would've opened if Kaiba hadn't slammed his foot down on the door, and then his shoulder. Ann sat on the floor, dumbfounded and almost curled into a ball with terror, gawking at  them as the frantic battle of human strength versed the griffin's, the boys shouting curses (that would only be able to be written out in a R rated fic.) and the constant furious bird toned roaring, muddled with the cracking wood. They were loosing. The dark nails prying the door open wider and wider as their strength failed and both pairs of feet slipped back. By now Yami's palms were fully stretched out and applying full force on the door, his face covered in sweat like Kaiba, grunting things like "Bastard" and such as Yami's head swung to her, almost frantic.

"DO SOMETHING!"

"L-like what?!"

"ANYTHING!!!" His voice was tensely horse as Ann's eyes darted about; trying to clear her head enough to concocted a plan to save their lives. But the terror had too strong of a hold on her, creating the space in her mind that she couldn't push out, and instead started rocking on the floor uneasily, succumbing to the panic that had eaten away at her.

[Calm down, child… Use the bracelet.] Ann listened to it immediately and pounced on the door with her own weight, rolling her sleeves up as her back held the vibrating door closed a few more precious seconds and the bracelet was whipped out to full view. Looking at it quickly she hoped it would work and touched the door, for some reason doing waving arm patterns that came to mind, like symbols, why she had no flipping clue, it was more of a just do it. It glowed wavy thick painted light onto the door frame, making her eyes hurt at looking at it, splattering on the door and seeping into the fine wood like ink through fabric. Gawking wildly at it Kaiba literally jumped off the door away from it as the edges grew brighter and the nails were suddenly being squeezed, and started to break under the pressure. The claws retreated at one Talon clearly snapping off, shrieks of pain and angry sweeping to their eyes as Ann fell down to the floor, exhausted. Kaiba was looking from her, to the door, to Yami's smirk lining his face. That kind of face that said 'I told you this so called Bullshit was real.' Yami's thin smile said one thing, but his eyes reflected the more matter of 'how the hell did you do that?' Ann just looked at him, not be able to talk at how fast her heart was still beating, almost ripping her chest apart, as her arms seemed to lay dead at her sides. It had taken a lot out of her, looking as if she had held the door down the whole time now that she was dripping with sweat, her fingers numb and twitching badly. What ever the hell she did, it worked, at least there was that.

"How did you know that enchantment would work?" She blinked at Yami confused, but finally pulled herself to at least talk to him.

"…That was…a spell…?" Her voice was a soft and hoarse. It felt like she had swallowed glass it hurt so bad, making her hang her head to stop the sudden throbbing because she couldn't hold her throat her arms were so tired. Everything was throbbing from a piercing pain.

"That… was a powerful spell…do you think you can get up?" His voice sounded a bit distant from her ears, but definitely concerned, her hair tickling the bridge of her nose annoyingly, trying to ignore it and lift her arms or even his legs. They wouldn't respond. For a scared moment she thought that she might have broken her neck or something, the signals from her Brian wouldn't register to her limps then, why did she have to do that? She slowly shook her head no, and swallowed fluid up her throat in case she needed speech. Which she did.

"I don't expect you to be able to. For a beginner, that should've killed you." He made a slow move to pick her up when she protested.

"Don't." He looked at her a bit annoyed.

"What else I am I suppose to do? We can't leave you hear, and you wouldn't be able to move for a while…" She glared at him, irritated at the thought someone carrying her; she didn't have a choice. He picked her up slowly, her arms going into a bit of a jerking fit but relaxing once he had settled her down enough to carry her like a baby, against his chest. She was pissed, personally she wanted to kick him or punch him, but it was like her body went to sleep was wasn't working except from the neck up. It sucked majorly.

"This…sucks." She told him angrily as they started off up a flight of stairs, feeling stupid as he struggled to carry her up, Kaiba leading, not turning around at all to help him. Haft of Ann rejoiced and the other part was sad. One Yami was doing all this work to carry her up the long dark flight of stairs on his own after tiring himself out at holding the beast out, but she would've killed if Kaiba had to carry her. That would be so incredibly embarrassing. Then again, this was embarrassing.  She was glad it was so dark, her checking flaming red, feeling stupider and more nervous by the second. Never in her life had she ever thought anyone would go to all the trouble of carrying her out side the family, she had never really wanted to be carried, this was becoming incredibly odd. It was one of those things that goes through a girl's mind, which she would often try hard to elude at all costs she hated it so much. But now she couldn't do anything to run away from it in her state.

"This really bites…er…thanks…" she told him gratefully, feeling odd when he didn't answer her but kept up the long flight of stairs. She partly wished she had died. 

            Finally at the top of the stairs he put her down and took a breather, Kaiba standing calmly, actually patient for once as Yami clutched his knees and breathed deeply. No words were exchanged, but she had a creepy feeling that her worse fear would occur. Kaiba picked her up. She was slung on his shoulder, carrying her with one strong arm, as she protested and told them just to leave her there, but ignored her totally until she finally shut up, straining her neck to look forward to look ahead then at his feet, and was quiet enough for them to talk.  

"There is one question that bother's me." Kaiba told Yami, vibrating under her slightly, feeling all the more humiliated.  

"Yes?"

"I don't know what the hell that thing what you did to get rid of it, maybe I don't want to know how, but how do you believe it even got here?" It was unlike Kaiba to ask questions about such topics, it was another of the most surprising things that had happened today.

"Magic of course." Ann told him, feeling a bit better, and slowly regaining control of her toes, curling them very slowly back and forth. Kaiba glared at her.

"There is no such thing."

"Oh come on Kaiba, it can't all be smoke and mirrors, it can't all be by chance. Actually it would be a bit more logical to have a tiny bit of magic existing in the world; it's really a force of energy, which controls many things. I feel like it couldn't be made up, somewhere it is real, it could be here." She coughed a bit and swallowed after her small speech, feeling strangely like Tea when Kaiba snorted at it.

"Magic? A force of energy is logical, but it is the stuff of fairy tales…you need to grow up."

"Many people thought the giant squid a myth, a fairy tale among frightened sailors, until a corpse was found on a beach some where and it was proven to really exist. Come one Kaiba, wake up. There are still things beyond our comprehension, forces at work." Kaiba started laughing.

"FORCES AT WORK?! God, you're just as insane as him! You wouldn't survive two seconds in the real world with those ideas swimming your head. Look at you now; this was at the work of _magic_? Some forces…" 

"I would slap you if I could." She told him angrily.

"Yes but you can't, to the work of your magic. Looks to be more trouble than it's worth, you'd die in the real world with those thoughts and silly dreams."

"We're still alive aren't we? That's to my _magic_... I'd rather live in my own world anyway…I'm not even in the real world now…why does it matter?" Kaiba was silent, making Ann blink with a bit of surprised that he wasn't giving her a better retort to out smart her or something, but he didn't. And at that twisted moment, she pitied him. He had never own the things that came from people's imagination, the things of fantasy books, only the cold hard facts; he must have had the worse child hood. She didn't take it a step further but silently stopped the argument there, not wishing to take her victory and rub it in his face.

"…tell me. Why did you come looking around up here?" She finally asked him, calmly, trying to be nice about it. He looked at her a troubled glance, then to Yami looking at him confused, as he set his hard stare back to them like he wouldn't tell ever, making Ann's spirits sink until his voice mumbled something.

"…I was looking for something to help me figure out…who was leaving me notes under my door every night." 

"Notes? What kind of notes?" Yami asked him confused; looking at Kaiba's face…staring to notice that he of all people was blushing. Ann's eyes widened surprised as all hell.

"_Love_ notes?! You got to be freaking' kidding me?!" Ann whispered to herself astonished as Yami started laughing at how red his face was going.

"Some one is sending you, of all people, love notes?!" He asked him with booming laughs, getting Kaiba a bit pissed off. Ann looked at Yami plainly.

"Actually, a lot of people adore him in my world." Yami fell to the floor cackling, holding his stomach as he rolled around on the floor uncontrollably, his face going rose-colored, as Kaiba started to glare at him helplessly, processing what Ann had just said.

"What!?"

"It's true. People write love fictions about every one of you guys, mostly Bakura, but there are a lot of Love fics about you and Yami." Yami stopped rolling around.

"Some of them are like…really…you don't want to know." She said troubled.

"Like what?"

"…Disturbing. Like sometimes you guys like…love each other in them." Yami made the worst disgusted face she had ever seen him make in his life and stepped a full foot away from Kaiba, as he too, did the same thing.

"That's sick." He told her plainly.

"Hey, I didn't write them…I usually write…never mind." She was glad when they didn't go after where she had left off, and instead came to another problem. The hall ended abruptly into a circular room, housing six very large doors, and a large dragon symbol sown into the rug. Taking a step into the room, a bunch of candles went a light above their heads and around them, two on the side of each door, creating a lot of light from them to see more clearly. The dragon was immense and was done by someone with enough artistic experience to boggle the mind, for the dragon looked so real, it could've been alive, a reason why everyone didn't take another step into the room, actually being carefully not to run into another beast. A loud clapping started around them, made by one person, but booming as Kaiba and Yami jumped away to something coming forth from over their heads, and landed lightly onto the ground. It was Ammon. And he was pissed.

            Clapping his hands sternly he glared at the three of them, but somehow wore a grin on his face, making him even scarier. Like a mad man.

"Good job. You've made it through this maze alive. You've past your first lesson, but not with flying colors as they call it." He was looking directing at her, making her look at him surprised.

"Me? You're talking to me?"

"Yes. You are my student, aren't you?" Her jaw fell open.

"No I'm not, I can't, I-" Ammon put a hand up to silence her.

"Quiet. It's not my choice. Shadi told me to teach you, I intent to do that, whether you or I like it or not." He bowed to the Yami quickly at the sight of him, giving him respect.

"My Pharaoh, I am sorry I was forbaded to tell you. You weren't even supposed to be here at this time." Yami crossed his arms a bit cross.

"I said I would help, and I intent to." Ammon bowed lower, a slight furious action rippling to her eyes.

"As you wish." Ammon was clearly unhappy with Yami; Yami clearly didn't care. Ammon stood tall again and looked at Kaiba.

"You too Seto Kaiba? I expected you least of all people…" Kaiba snorted irritably, and didn't reply to that statement, which was probably a good thing. Nodding Ammon turned his tanned face back to Ann a bit annoyed.

"You frightened me before, when you wouldn't help your friends…at the door; I almost gave up on you until you flew up and stopped the creature I had planted, all on your own."

"My own? What the hell are you talking about?" Ann asked him bitterly. Ammon blinked at her confused. Ann groaned.

"You told me to calm down, and to use the bracelet…remember?" Her voice became wishful at the end, becoming convinced that it wasn't him by the look he was showing.

"That was not I. Who showed you that spell?"

"…No one…I just sort of…did it." She felt totally insane from the blinking look Ammon was giving her, turning her eyes away to the ceiling showing she'd rather not talk about it. Okay, hearing voices was bad, she guessed for even here. Great. Now she was crazy.

"…I believe this was enough for one day." Ammon finally continued, disregarding the problem as small.

"We should return to the others and you," His attention was directed to her in a flash, making her flinch. "Of all people, should most definitely regain your strength." His fingers snapped and an odd rippling ticked at Ann's eyes for a brief moment, a strange feeling that made her quiver a little as Ammon walked past them and opened the door they had entered, revealing the first bright shinning corridor Ann had entered a few hours ago.

"Come." He left the room at a steady pace as Yami and Kaiba followed, Ann left hopelessly on Kaiba's shoulder a bit baffled and confused, but mostly hurt. He lead them to her room and let Kaiba throw her on the bed a bit like a suit case and left the room to let her lay there, alone and practically dazed on the bed, staring up at the ceiling.

"Well thank you very much guys…" She muttered to herself, annoyed, starting to count the paint brush lines on the ceiling. After a while of counting, when she was at the number 2314 someone opened the door to her room. She looked over with the corner of her eye and saw Brian standing there with what looked like a bowl of soup from the light stream waving up into his face.

"Jeez. What the hell did he do to you?" Were the first words out of his mouth when he pulled up a chair to the side of her bed, wanting to talk about it. She sighed, not sure if she could move her limps yet or anything for that matter, her neck hurt now; she felt like a lump of flesh instead of a body.

"I decided to do some weird spell that took everything out of me, god you have no idea how much this sucks, I can't even move my arms!" She told him incredibly irritated as he lifted the purple bowl into his hands and turned it, making more stream and a delicious scent waft into her nose.

"…What is that stuff?" Brian shrugged.

"I don't know some kind of soup they told me to give you." She lifted her neck up and looked at him puzzled.

"Soup? Like healing soup?" He stirred it again, a quick stir, and scoped a bit into the spoon.

"I don't know, Ammon made it with Bill's help. I think it's supposed to… hurry up and eat this." He forced the reddish liquid into her mouth quickly before she could protest to the soup or the fact he had to feed her like a little baby. It was defiantly sour, making her squint her eyes as they watered slightly at the extreme taste flowing down her throat.

"YUCK! What the hell is in this?!"

"How the hell should I know? I think Bill said something about onions and peanut butter earlier, and some other stuff Ammon added…like grass…maybe."

"Do I look like cow?"

"No…" He shoved another mouth full into her, and she swallowed it quickly to avoid the taste. It went down slowly, but already seemed to be working on her. A tingling sensation started in the tips of her fingers and was starting to trickle up into her palm; she found she could move her fingers at least a centimeter, that at least was good.

"Well…what ever the hell it is, it works." She took a couple of more spoon fulls and was able to flex her fingers on her right hand very slowly, while she talked to him.

"Do you think my mom is worried yet?"

"Probably. You should go home as soon as you're able to…that or call her." Ann shook her head.

"I could barely talk earlier, she'll know something's up. I don't need her finding out about this whole other world business. It would freak her out." Brian shrugged.

"It would scare anybody's parents."

"I guess your right… how's everybody else?" Brian stirred the crimson liquid a moment, thinking.

"Well…Yami and Kaiba are like interrogating Kyle to show them that fan fiction site, poor dude. I haven't seen Yugi or Tea all day... Bakura said something about getting some air about an hour ago after Yami told him what had happened this morning. I kind of just sat around and played some video games while Bill called your sister and told her what happened-"

"HE DID WHAT?!" Ann shouted at him surprised, wishing she could strangle him that very moment, but continued. 

"Oh damn it! Now I got to worry about her going all 'I got to save my little sister' act and probably will cause more trouble. She's a menace…well…went she wants to be…" Ann complained, twisting her wrist around and flexing her fingers faster as she curled her toes, as she fumed at how everything was going to shit again.

"Well…that's not the haft of it. Bill said he was gonna pick her up from our world and bring her here to come see you." Ann slammed her head on the bed angrily.

"DAMN IT BILL! How long ago was that?"

"Maybe an hour." She rolled her eyes; this was just getting more and more unpleasant.

"Anything else I should know?" Brian paused, thinking a moment and them giving her another spoonful.

"…well…her boyfriend was with her when Bill called…and…Bill said that it sounded like he wasn't gonna let her go without him…so…" Ann looked at him wide-eyed.

"You don't mean to tell me she's taking him with her. God! I'm going to KILL her if she does! Who knows what will happen? If she takes him it would probably ruin everything! Poor Joey…poor Marie…poor Trent. Joey will probably kick the shit out of him when he finds out…" Trent was the new boy friend. Ann had only met him a few times, so she didn't know him every well. Marie liked to be mysterious about him and not tell her anything, so Ann always assumed it was either making out in his pick up truck at drive ins or romantic dinners. It had to be something stupid, so Ann never really decided to investigate. After a long time of slowly taking in soup she could move her arms enough to take the bowel from him and start chugging it down instead of using the spoon, not caring if it was at all lady like in front of him. She finished the bowl fast, and could move a bit. Enough to get up out of her bed and make a few slow movements to try and walk around, feeling a lot like a stringed puppet with the worst controller in the world pulling the strings. It was funny enough to make Brian start laughing at how stupid she looked, she fell a few times trying to hit him, and wobbly out back onto her feet.

"…I think I'm gonna get some more of that soup…until I can walk normal again anyway." She jerkily reached the door and opened it slowly, concentrating all she could just to open it without anyone's help and started out into the hall, still walking like a drunken fool. She slowly reached the kitchen and walked past Yami sitting at the table, read some book that was probably lying around the house boredly, as she held herself up on the counter as she looked for more of it, and snorted to find that they didn't make any extra. She sat down annoyed and felt like banging her head on the table when Serenity arrived light heartedly and sat at the table with a bit of a giggle. Yami didn't notice, and flipped the page still wearing that bored expression…that is until Kaiba came into the room fuming angrily, muttering something about "damn letters" and quickly jerked the front door open and slammed it on his way out, carefully missing the ends of his trench coat while doing so. Yami raised an eyebrow at the door, and sighed sadly as Serenity got up from her chair again and left Ann sitting there dumbfounded. 

            It seems Serenity had a crush on Kaiba.  

BookDragon: "Please send reviews!" ^_^


	10. Fighting is Bad

BookDragon: "Hey, it's Saturday and my dad's coming home!" *fireworks go off*

Bill: "Is there going to be cake?"

BookDragon: -_-u "Yes…"

Bill: "I'M THERE!"

BookDragon: *rolls eyes* "On with the fic."

Chapter 10: Fighting is Bad

            Ann sipped the blue mug slowly, savoring the hot liquid flowing through her lips and down into her. But she was still cold. Wrapping her frail fingers around the blue painted clay she looked up at the others, talking relatively about what to do about the current facts as they sat in her room. They had come back only a few hours earlier, after short farewells, and Ann unhooked the lock from her door to go get some refreshments, particularly warm since the Shadow Realm was icy and unwelcoming. She had gone down and started pouring some hot coco when she had been embraced by her sobbing mother. Apparently they had called the police Saturday night and was being looked for, which took Ann by surprise, more from her mother than the police. Luckily her sister stopped backing the moment she saw her, and she took immediately busted into tears. It took Ann more than a haft hour to calm them down and come up with some bogus story for her mother and to try and just smile for the sake of her sister. She had to pour new drinks before she came back up to a bored looking Brian, Kyle, and Bill tinkering with stuff in her room. Bill had decided to visit for a while. 

            He took a long sip and sighed.

"How was I suppose to know that you weren't on speaking terms? What was I to do? You were in a bad condition Ann."

"YES. I know Bill. But that gave you no right to get Marie all worked up and have to play big sister. She gave that up a long time ago. I'd rather have it that way. Besides you knew Ammon had things under control, he always seems to." Bill rolled this eyes annoyed.

"Look. He wouldn't tell me about the whole test. I had no idea that he'd send a griffin after you! He said that it was a guard. Yeah I know it was lousy but I didn't tell him. Then he comes out and says you're really hurt. What would you have done?"

"I would've talked to myself. Don't go play mother again Bill… it's embarrassing." Bill almost choked on his espresso as Kyle started laughing at him, making Brian silence him like an old Libran. Ann kept a giggle but straightened up, finding it exploded in her chest instead of the normal tickle. Keeping her eyes from watering she took a huge sip and listened to Kyle.

"What are we going to do?" Ann knew he was talking about the whole double thing again. She hid her face behind that large mug, still pretending to be drinking to avoid eyes, as Brian swished the liquid in his mug before placing it down with a loud tap.

"Yeah what are we going to do about that? We can't let you go into this alone you know…" Ann gave him a quick nasty glare, and slammed her mug down angrily.

"You should just stay out of it. It's my problem. I should have to deal with her, not you guys. I must do it alone." Kyle looked annoyed.

"Oh come on! Bill said you could barely move after that whole spell thing! And I heard Ammon saying she was a powerful assassin with deadly magic. She's got the advantage, and you know it! To go against her alone in your state she would kill you." Ann's eyes flashed at those words, and she kept her hands calm, reminding herself not to loose it like before; eyeing the dented pink walls was enough to keep her a lethal coolness. 

"According to Ammon, he's going to be teaching me some of that magic. All I have to do is just avoid contact with any of them and stay alive through the lessons and I'll be able to do them."

"That's a bit of a stretch. They _know_ were Bill lives. They know you will be there often. They will come to get you. It's unavoidable. The question is…what can we do if they decide to come early? Splash espresso on there faces and run away with our tale between your legs?!"

"Humans don't have tales, Kyle." Bill told him in a smooth voice. Kyle attempted to punch him, but he missed and Bill leaped onto the bed quickly, giving him a bragging look. Kyle ignored it.

"We got to do something…" Bill yawned boredly, taking another sip of the hot dancing liquid and taking their attention.

"Ammon's already took care of it. He's fixed the cabin to be a complete safe house through magic. If they try to enter without permission, they'll have their heads rolling on the floor or being hanged by their fingers. We have them by the balls." Ann cleared her throat thoughtfully at the thought of her own counterpart, making him blush at forgetting her own double was female. No one visited that subject.

"How do we even know she's not like Bakura's aibou? He could just take over his body when ever he wanted." Ann hadn't thought of that. She looked at them unbelieving when their eyes changed from each other to her with a slow stare. She looked at them unbelieving and almost felt betrayed at such thoughts.

"She hasn't done that. I swear if she did you guys would know. I'm not like her. You heard her say it, Bill. She'd try to get me to kill myself or kill one of you, which I can say I've never thought or even tried to do…okay maybe Bill once but that was because he had done something really stupid but I'm over that. I wouldn't _really_ do a kind of thing like that. I swear I wouldn't ever!"  They backed off her case, which was one reason they were her friends. It was hard to explain why she mostly had male friends, one that puzzled her sometimes when asked, and confused her when she searched deep in herself. 

The only way she could think of explaining it for most cases would be this: Friendship to girls is a glass vase. You have to be extremely careful with it in the beginning and slowly it would be easier to respect and take care of, to keep it from shattering. Friendship to guys is, instead of a vase, a football. They can kick it, pound it, drag it through the mud, throw it, smash it into the ground, and about anything else you can think of and it won't break.

            Even now, as Ann watched Kyle dive for Bill on the bed and dragged him off of it making a loud bang onto the floor, they would be friends the next day, and would probably forget it all together. It was just that eerie sense of logic that made them so likeable, a reason why she seemed embarrassed to do all those girlish things like wearing make up and tight clothing, so she avoided it.

"ANN?! IS EVERYTHING OKAY UP THERE?" Her mother's voice rang from downstairs, snapping her attention back to the noise they had made.

"Er…YEAH MOM…EVERYTHING'S FINE!...I…uh…A COUPLE OF MY BOOKS FELL OFF THE SHELF!" A distant okay sounded from down stairs and everyone started to move from their frozen statue states. They continued in softer voices.

"Okay. We're still gonna help whether you like it or not." She let out a breath of hot air but accepted what Kyle said. They were all stubborn, and would go against anyone for the right reason; no wonder she thought of themselves as rebels. 

"Fine. Just don't get yourself killed doing it. I would be cursing your names if you did that to me. I'll kill you if you do, so don't tempt me." Bill grinned at her comment and agreed, placing his cup down as if to shake on it.

"Beware guys, even in the after world you'd have to watch your back." A smirk lit onto her grim face and she slightly warmed, it was good to just hang around again. It was then depressing when Brian placed his cup onto the table after looking at his watch, which was now working again, and looked at them sadly. 

"We should go. It's late and I actually want to sleep in my own bed for once…" Kyle nodded grimly and slowly got to his feet with Bill in a head lock. 

"I'll go through the closet." Bill answered in an out of breath fashion and was released as they left the room quietly. She took them to her brother's room; a blue room with stuff littered all over the place and was in the front part of the house, to the window. She opened it and let an icy gust of wind pierce her face, causing her ears to turn red and ushered them out into the cold mournfully. Kyle and Brian climbed out the window nimbly and stood on the roof of the porch, and waved a farewell before hopping off the roof to the leafy ground and off home in the dark. It was the only way to get them out without her mom knowing they were here and welcoming the question of when and where they arrived. Bill and she waved as they silently roamed into the road and away down the street, watching until they couldn't be seen. Ann sighed and pulled the window shut with a jerk and turned to Bill expectedly. He nodded a slow jerk and went back to her room and opened the closet as she locked the door again and let him do the magic, making a large hole and waving a quick bye before jumping through, letting it eat him and shut like a human mouth into nothingness. She sighed again and shut the sliding door with a thud and turned to get ready to find her sister sitting on the bed looking at her. Jumping out of her skin she looked into her fierce eyes unexpectedly as she rouse from the bed and but her big sister roll of command into affect.

"You will take me to see him tomorrow." Ann blinked, dumbfounded by the words she breathed into the air and around into her ears. It took her seconds to realize that she was going to talk to Joey.

"Oh no. You can't." She was thinking about the whole Serenity & Kaiba problem coming arise with the fact that Marie was dating some other guys as well. Joey would be in a lot of pain.

"I must. I got to tell him the truth…that or I'll make you do it."

"You can't do anything to make me…"

"I'll tell mom." Ann looked at her with total shock, glaring at her angrily. She would tell her of everything that an occurred last winter, and where she was going now. This was so unfair.

"…You wouldn't dare…" Marie drew up a breath and was about to bellow to her mother when Ann leaped up, and jammed her hand over her mouth.

"Okay OKAY! You win. We'll go tomorrow since we don't have school, you can tell him then, and we'll go early in the morning so mom wouldn't find us missing, probably sixish. But you got to do as I say when we travel through, promise that you won't ever tell a soul on your life, and you can't ever return to the place I'm going to take you. Deal?" Marie hesitated, then slowly nodded and gave her her hand to shake. Ann took it with a tight grip and shook it with a painful grip.

"I swear."

"Good. Now, go away so I can concentrate." Marie left the room quickly at her command, leaving her to worry about some other problem as she flopped onto the bed annoyed yet again by this ever tightening circle strangling her as she drifted into an unwanted sleep.

            She had that odd dream again, the one with the foggy thick mist and a black figure walking a bit closer than before and instead of silence a soft laugh echoed silverishly around her face and ears, tickling them gently, and making her gag at the golden tune enveloping around her when she awoke to her sister shaking her furiously.

"WAKE UP GOD DAMN IT!" Ann's eyes flew open and immediately shoved her sister off her, spinning upward in a frenzy of shock, her heart pounding terrible and her face glistening with sweat in the dim streaks of light coming through the shut window shades. Her surprise turned icily to anger as she snorted and started collecting her clothing she would change into, Marie watching a bit dazed at how hard she had pushed her away, and started out of the room much like Kaiba would.

"Get up and go fetch your things." She told her with a growling voice as she disappeared into the bathroom with a slam and the shower instantly came on at full blast.

            She came out shortly after, hurrying with the whole process and accidentally burning her skin enough to glow a warm pink as she climbed quickly into her clothes and untangled her mess of curls and emerged to her sister's solemn face looking at her. 

"I left a note telling mom we went to the mall. Are you okay with that?" It sounded more of an angry statement than a question. Ann nodded gruffly and pulled off her bracelet and strode into her room, to the closet, with Marie at her heels. She quietly flung the door open enough to start the process, half hoping it wouldn't work and she would have to do this another day. But, to both her and Joey's misfortune, it opened easily under her furious commanding and she simply took Marie's wrist and blindly leaped in as always.

            It was cold. Enough to cause one's breath to go foggy and Marie to shiver due to the thin pants and tight shirt she was wearing, making Ann pull off her brown sweater and throwing it to her irritated as she started forward with just a tank top on. Marie paused a moment, looking at her with some surprise.

"Just put it on. I'm fine." Ann swung her head back and started walking forward, holding the bracelet out like a lamp and silently stumbled through the darkness as her sister quickly flipped the sweater on and gripped the white tank top to keep her from getting lost. Ann lead the best she could, losing her own footing a few times out of nervousness and how fast she was pacing to make herself seem to know where she was going. At least when she was Brian and Kyle she didn't have to lie, with Marie, she had to prove she could take care of herself. 

"Are you sure it's this way?" Marie asked for the hundredth time.

"Yes I'm sure." Ann grunted pissed off when she suddenly noticed a light ahead. Stopping dead she froze at the sight of it and took Marie's arm with strong fingers. Her ears worked furiously at the small whispers, until she finally heard something familiar.

"She is no fool, she said she'd come in an hour and she will…have patience Marik." Ann immediately pulled her sister hard and lunged at the ground to look more like the floor instead of two figures.

"Damn…Kyle was right." Ann whispered fuming but slightly afraid. Kakra was supposed to show up. If that happened, then she was sure they would be dead.

"What's going on?!" She sister asked quietly with bright eyes, picking up the single cord of fear in her last words. Ann eyes darted back and forth as she thought of an answer she could prove her for the time being.

"Uhh…TombRobber is back with a new friend. Let's just say they make quiet a pair to get around…quick, crawl that way. If I can get us the hell out of here, it will defiantly be better…for our lives." She decided that Marie didn't need to know about her own aibou; that wouldn't come out of her lips for the world. 

            As fast and silently as they were able to, both girls quickly scrambled through the shadowy fog, away from them to the right, following the small tugged on her bracelet as she felt her sisters fingers clasped on her jeans as Ann's mind started tinkering at the fastest pace she had ever felt. Why did this have to happen today? This really topped everything off. What would she do if they were caught? Could she get out of their hold with that spell she had learned? She doubted it. Marie wouldn't be able to carry her out of here and through a portal with any of them still alive and breathing nipping at their heels. There was just no way. 

Scrambling through the dark like a frightened child her hand hit something warm and smooth under her fingers. Freezing for a horrified second, her eyes traveled to a pair of golden eyes flashing at her through the clouds and a grin soon appearing. Kakra was here. Having no time to scream her tanned hand immediately clasped the back of her shirt and easily lifted her off the ground with one arm and threw her off somewhere toward the two figures in the distance. Ann let herself fall on the ground in a shocked thud and heard Marie shout in some surprised as her grip was ripped away from her leg, making Ann leap to her feet and sprint back at full speed and launch herself onto Kakra through the hazy blackness, tarring and clutching to her waist as they fell to the floor in a cluttered mess. She heard an enraged shriek and felt a foot kick her straight in the chest with such force to knock her back a couple of feet and to feel like her ribs had become a football. Stumbling back Kakra loomed out of the darkness and attacked her again, a swinging kick that tripped her and left her a lump on the floor, groaning as she felt increasingly worse and heard running footsteps exploding in her eyes. She stumbled to her feet wobbly and glared at Kakra watching her with madness in her bright sun orbs eyes in the gloom, wiping something wet off of her face she let it hit the floor with a splashing flick of her wrist and started to circle her, like a lion. Grinning Kakra followed her lead and started to talk, smoothly and business style, but savoring every word.

"You can't win.  I'm the better half of you…"

 "If you call being the biggest pain in the ass then I would have to agree." She laughed and let the shrieking gusts echo around them. Marie was close by and listened to their talk and slow movements around in circles, Ann knew she had to be listening. So did Kakra.

"Is that you sister traveling with you? Not much of a fighter is she? It's surprising to find you standing for her when she is older, but I would expect something like that from you... you at least are a bit like me I must admit." Ann glared annoyed as Kakra continued, shouting at the darkness to her sister in the shadows.

"DON'T YOU KNOW GIRL? THAT YOUR SISTER'S DOUBLES ARE OF THE DARK TYPE?! THAT SHE HAS A WHOLE MATCH OF SLY WITTED AND BEAUTIFUL WOMEN LIKE HER? How do you like it, to know that your own sister could be as black hearted…" Ann snorted and started laughing, causing Kakra to snap her eyes furiously back to her, fuming deeply at the high cackling.

"What's so funny?" Kakra's voice oozed angrily into the air. Ann dimmed her laughing down to a giggle.

"Just the fact that you're contradicting yourself. You said before that I was different, from all of you, and now you tell me I'm dark hearted. It's amusing. And yet, you are here, trying to kill me, a part of you, and you think that I'm black hearted? You confuse me, but then again I confuse many people, so we mustn't be as different as you believe. How do you explain that?" Kakra leaped enraged at her and Ann was taken a back at how fast her hands meet her throat and she was thrown down to the ground with the extra weight. It was like before, getting the air squeezed out of her, but instead of panicking, she felt calm and everything was unusually clear before her eyes. It was more so to where her feet was, under Kakra. Tears springing to her eyes from getting no air her legs sprung into action and throw her off of her throat with more force than what she had used before on Marie. She watched as Kakra flew up and away and quickly rolled backward onto her feet, and into a punch in the side. Coughing immediate she fell down and was kicked hard in the head, a loud cracking sound commencing as something metallic tasting dripped out of her mouth as everything changed oddly. Dazed and confused Ann dragged herself to her feet and looked up to a pair of dark violet eyes looking at her with the single bright golden Egyptian eye on his forehead.  She watched the grin over come his face, looking twisted insane and more dangerous, but she was too dazed by the blow to her skull and the amount of blood pouring sticky down the side of her face, to be at all terrified and both surprised when out of know where Bill appeared from the thick space and took him to the ground with all his strength. A series of enraged shouts of anguish and screams of revenge exploded into the blackened air around Ann, as she slowly climbed to her feet, no sure what she was doing and having a hard time thinking straight, approaching the mess of the two boys rolling on the floor kicking and punching at each other with red flashing in their eyes. She stood unmoving over them a moment, wondering why Bill was pinned and getting punched in the face and unable to protect himself from Marik's mad cackling. All at once, she felt her mind cloud deeply as a part of the back of her mind that was never used opened widely and let a blast of murmurs and odd laughing take her over. This had only happened once before, and she recognized the voice whispering in her ear to be one that she did not make up in her own head.

[Save the boy.] Its laugh oozed into the cloudiness and caused her to obey the command, ignoring her legs buckling from her own weight as her hand flew forward and grabbed Marik's tan wrist with a force that she did not have in her and twist it, listening to the bones snap like twigs and a scream of something in too much pain leap into her ears as she somehow lifted him like a rag doll and throw him away with a flick of her wrist. Watching the body hit and skid off somewhere she barely noticed Bill's look of total shock imbedded onto his face. Lying motionless was how she left him, as the voice danced and muddled her thoughts more so she could only listen and do.

[Find the girl that shares your blood.] Her eyes flashed through the blackness, somehow able to see through it perfectly and see Marie holding her legs afraid in the distance and her own other wandering around, and suddenly flicking her attention to her. Kakra leaped forward in full assault, but Ann snarled something in a drunken manner and sent her tumbling back with a blast of ice filled gust of wind and kept swaying toward her sister, making more of a problem controlling her own body that taking care of Kakra and leaving her an ice statue that was steadily melting. Ann reached Marie and took her wrist gently but with the powerful grip and pulled her to her feet, letting Marie's arms embrace her a moment and started back to Bill on the floor still white, past Kakra's glowering bright yellow eyes, and letting Bill sheepishly smile at Marie as she let go over her to do what was called next.

[Get out.] Something in her mind started to protest but the stronger voice drowned it out.

[You will leave her. It is not the proper moment. Leave.] Ann's vision blurred and unburied as her fingers traced little symbols in a large circle around them and let the bracelet go haywire in her steady grip as she explained dominance to it. It submitted to her will and called up an opening to the right world and dumped them somewhere in it, before Kakra could completely defrost, and before Tomb Robber could harm them from behind. Why she could she that she didn't know, but soon everything went black as they were suddenly free falling down.

"Ann? Ann!? Hey can you hear me?!" Her vision blurred and slowly cleared to a pair of bright violet eyes streaming a worried look upon her face as she slowly groaned and lifted her hand to the horrible pounding enveloping her current thoughts, unnoticing the door shut tightly again in the back corner of her mind. Cloth tickled her fingers, slowly realizing she was sitting in white sheets and a soft bed. Ann slowly focused to Yugi sitting on her bed, looking nervously but relieved at her, making her laugh a bit at how worked up he looked. It was a bad idea, it was terrible to laugh it hurt so bad, and sent her over coughing. 

"Easy…" Yugi breathed as she pulled herself up again to look at her, still rubbing her prickling fingers on the course cloth on her head.

"…Where am I?" She finally asked, her voice no more than a whisper against the steady walking and voices echoing from somewhere around the room.

"You're in the hospital." She looked at him confused.

"Bill took you here as soon as you got back, Kaiba made up some fake record of you so be careful if they start calling you Lady Smith." She grinned at the name and let herself lay back and hold onto the warm metal rail on the side of her cot.

"Where's Marie?"

"She's in the lobby, I told her I'd get her when you woke up." He quickly got up to do so.

"Wait." Yugi spun around quickly on the heel of his sneaker, his hair swinging with his head.

"Don't... Not yet… Has she seen Joey?" Yugi blinked, puzzled at the question.

"No…" It was a puzzled 'what is this about?' question.

"She has to talk to him. It's important. She seeing someone…" Yugi looked gloomier as she told him that, making her feel worse to see his purple eyes sadden for his friend in such a bright lit white room.

"You can't let Joey see her yet…he's gonna be in a lot of pain when he finds out Serenity is in love with Kaiba…I'm sure that will come out of the closet soon, it'll be a lot to bear so do the best you can for him." Yugi's jaw unhinged and hung freely, dumbfounded at the thought of Serenity and Kaiba; together, as a couple. That just didn't make sense. She agreed with his expression. No matter how she could put it, she felt bad for the blonde, hot headed, joking, sometimes dim witted Joey she had grown to be fond of as the best friend a guy/ girl could have; she felt the need to help even if she had only known him for a couple of days last year, and practically months on television. That was true for a lot of the characters now, she supposed that she was fond of them to begin with, and was happy to have them around; what Yu-gi-oh fan wouldn't? She lightly waved as he left the room thinking hard, leaving her to soar in the sun light shinning onto her fingers. That and the row of get well cards and a pot of flowers sitting on the table next to her bed. Blinking a bit puzzled at the golden smooth petals she knew to be marigolds, she reached for the blue card sticking out of the green steams and read it.

"Get well soon." Was written in pretty curvy letters, making her admiring the handwriting, but frown at the sight that no one left their name. Baffled at you could've sent her them and why they would, she jumped unexpectedly as Marie entered the room, looking joyous but careful as she slowly entered, not getting at all close to her.

"It's good to see you up…and acting normal." Ann looked away from her sister's steady gaze, knowing her shameful secret and watching her go completely out of it, like mad.

"I'm still glad I didn't tell you, even if you are pissed now, it's my problem and I should take care of it." Marie's eyes narrowed as a smug smile came to her face and she walked to the side of her bed to point a finger at her.

"A problem that could kill you? I've heard of Man vs. Himself but this is just ridiculous. How would do you think mom would feel if I just came home to tell her that her other daughter is dead and I couldn't ever tell her the truth! Wake up Ann! It's not all about you." Ann eyes flashed with a sudden bit of fury over taking her.

"YES I KNOW THAT! IT'S ALWAYS BEEN ABOUT MY FAMILY! WHY DO YOU THINK THAT I'VE LIMITED MY LIFE! TO PROTECT YOU, MY FAMILY! I'VE SUMITTED MYSELF TO DO THAT AND ONLY LIVE IN MY DREAMS OF ADVENTURE UNTIL I WASN'T NEEDED. THAT WHY I-" She froze suddenly, holding her hand over  her mouth to silence herself from that few words that almost slipped away, the deepest and most dark secret she held with in her. Marie just stood, with her arms crossed, awaiting the rest of the lecture.

"Just get out." Ann finished, turning away to the window to watch the birds, knowing Marie would refuse.

"That's why you do what Ann? Finish your rant."

"GET OUT. I have to think." Marie's anger flared.

"You think all the time Ann! I would think it would get you somewhere." Ann almost took the plant to throw at her, but instead controlled it and lunged a pillow at her face.

"GET YOUR ASS OUT OF HERE!" Marie turned fuming as she spiraled out of the room at a fast pace, leaving her with thoughts of anger and grief at what she had just done.

"…But she can't know. No one can…now, where did you come from?" She asked more the plant than herself, picking it up off the table and onto her lap to let its smelled intoxicate her senses and leave her to dream and escape this reality. It didn't work. So she remained sitting and rubbing her fingers against the flowers as she thought aloud to herself, just to master talking straight.

"Now. Where have I seen this handwriting before? Why you'd anyone send me flowers?"

"Cause they were worried." She answered herself in a 'you idiot' fashion. She shook her head all the more puzzled when Bill walked into the room, his face white but happy to see her.

"Did you get Marie pissed?"

"Yeah… why?" Bill shook his head.

"Well, she just took out two doctors and is being "escorted" out of the hospital for a while…it's gonna take me hours to convince them to let her back in."

"Don't. We're in a cat fight right now." Billed nodded in an understanding matter, but his eyes still looked at her confused.

"What?" Bill hesitated.

"…Do you remember anything you did? Most preferably breaking Marik's arm like that?" Ann nodded gloomily.

"That voice came back again. I know it's bad to here voices but I'm not insane, it's not from my own head, it's like a…oh…what do you call it? That thing were you can share thoughts with someone?"

"Who do you think you would have a physic link with inn the Shadow Realm _and_ my own house of all places?" Ann thought a moment, and then shrugged as Bill sighed.

"I dunno…Who left the flowers?" She asked him, changing subjects. Bill sat down in a chair while talking.

"Bakura did yesterday, and stayed for a while. Then he stayed for like an hour today and left. Something about going to the library." 

"Oh."

"Jeez, for landing in a garbage can and looking like hell for three days, it's good to have you taking again." 

"We landed in a garbage can and I've been asleep for three days?! That's great, how wonderful to be practically dead to the world for a full 72 hours of my life and worse to end up smelling of old trash." Bill just smiled as she let him know she had regained her sarcasm and little humor she had. She sighed.

"When am I getting out of here? The bed already reminds me of throw up."

"When the doctors say your okay and officially send Kaiba the bill. He was slightly ticked off when he heard I couldn't pay it. I've got it all in the house…and some saved up for food and stuff." She sighed at how much of a burden she was becoming in these past three days.

"You're lucky. They said you should've had brain damage from the amount of blood loss and were practically freaked out at how much you injured yourself. They wouldn't let Ammon do anything to fix it until the second day when we coaxed the doctor into letting us."

"More soup?"

"Yeah, that and some little spells…oh, speaking of which Ammon was impressed with that traveling enchantment and told me to give this back." He held out her arm bracelet and clasped it back onto her arm.

"Right where it should be..."  Kaiba abruptly walked briskly into the room, a huge wad of flapping papers in one fist, and looked at the two of them.

"You. Fill these out." He flopped the massive mess of parchment onto her bed as she grimaced at the whole load of work just thirsted at her. Sighing she took the first slip of crisp clean paper and squinted at the small black inked letters sadly as Kaiba sat down in the nearest squashy blue chair, trying to relax by resting his head all the way back and staring at the ceiling. Bill looked at him curiously.

"What's your problem?" Kaiba glared at him annoyed.

"…that…_girl_ keeps stalking me. Wheeler should keep her on a lish…" Ann dropped the paper and stared at Kaiba dumbfounded. Kaiba had found out about Serenity, and now it was worse; Bill was standing right there. His white was white and his eyes wide in disbelief.

"…Serenity has a crush on you?" Kaiba didn't notice how odd he was acting and put his feet up on the end of the bed while rubbing his forehead.

"Yeah, and she's stalking me." Bill quickly got up from where he was sitting; wearing the most twisted expression she had ever seen and paced out of the room mumbling something about paper work. Kaiba glanced at him and looked back to Ann irritated confused, looking for an answer. Ann simply shook her head slowly.

"It's hard to explain… what is all this stuff anyway?"

"Information about the patient, that sort of thing, I couldn't fill it out before and Bill supposedly didn't have a clue about any of it." Ann groaned at the questions. Her first name, last name, date of birth, weight, mother's and father's name, name of grand parents, uncles and aunts, allergies, blood type, etc. She took a pen from the nearest place, which was the table, and started scribbling when someone else arrived.

"Is Bill alright?" Bakura's voice asked from the doorway. Ann sighed, still looking at the mess of ink.

"Yeah, he's just got love problems…he'll get over it." Kaiba sighed annoyed.

"That kind of love is for fools." Bakura didn't say anything, but sat down slowly and stared out the window for a time until Ann flopped the papers down done making up fake names and stuff.

"How's everything on the outside?" She already felt like a prisoner. Bakura sighed.

"Everything's okay, Joey and Tristan are picking up hamburgers for everybody, Yugi's looking like he's dying of the chemicals in his hair and Yami's asking him if he's alright, I guess there in a huge conversa-" His brown orbs suddenly widened in surprised and dived under the window fast, making Ann blink at him surprised, and glance out the window at a huge group of girls looking around on the side walk; she started to laugh.

"Girl problems?" He blushed but nodded as they left slowly, heads and eyes darting in all directions for the white haired boy cuddled under her window as they walked into the front door of the hospital. 

"It's okay, there gone…but they are in the hospital." Bakura froze when he started to get up, grimacing at the new problem. She guessed he was having the same day as Kaiba except about ten times worse. He got to the door and locked it quickly and paced the room, thinking fast about away to escape. Ann couldn't even help him if she tried, and instead put her face in the flowers to relax. She was starting in wonder how she was ever going to get well again, almost dying twice in the past week; her parents probably worried sick. As soon as she was out she would pay them a visit, and she guessed try to figure out how to control the magic she kept using. That was a question for Ammon.

BookDragon: *falls over from the amount of writing twitching*

Bill: 0_0 "Wow…um… review?"


	11. Bakura Rapid Fan girls Bill Chaos

BookDragon: "Another week, another chapter."

Bill: "Jeez, this is longer than Day dreams now…how long will it be?"

BookDragon: "I'm not sure. Until it's done I guess. I'm making it up as I go."

Bill: *rolls eyes* "On with the fic!"

Chapter 11: Bakura + Rapid Fan girls + Bill = Chaos

            Sighing, she threw off the white sheets and found herself wearing those paper clothes that they put you in. An other thing to do. Bill handed her some clothes that he had brought for her, watching Bakura still, wondering if he would flip out again. She took the pile of fluffy garments and ran into the small bathroom they gave her, whipping the black tank top and blue jeans, finding the jeans a bit uncomfortable around the waist for some reason, and pulled on a brown feathery sweater. Bursting out of the room she asked Bill for a belt. He conjured one right in front of her as if it was no big deal, actually it wasn't really any more, and handed it her. She immediately put it on, asking him what the hell were wrong with these pants.

"There's nothing wrong with them. I'm letting you borrow mine." That explained a lot. She groaned annoyed. Something else to remind her of the whole puberty shit going on. Shaking her head she avoided that conversation and looked for her shoes, which they had stuffed in a plastic bag by her bed. She assumed they had one of those emergency checks on her when Bill took her in. Clawing them out of the bag she flung herself onto the bed, franticly shoving her shoes on (that now had the added aroma of trash), and jumped to her feet.

"Okay. Let's get the hell out of here." Bill got up quickly at that comment.

"What about those papers?"

"Screw the papers Bill, I don't really exist in this place anyway, do you feel like paying a hospital bill? Kaiba smiled a brief sly grin and stood to his feet, dusting himself off, and prepared himself to get out. An obvious no. Bill shifted a moment, uncomfortably, looking totally unsure.

"…Fine. But one thing." His eye lids flipped shut and a green wad of American bills appeared into his hands, which he placed on the papers and stuffed into the slot holding her files about injuries and stuff and followed them to the door. Bakura bit his lip nervously; brown eyes full of worry, as Ann opened the door a jar and peered through, looking both ways, and finally beckoning them through into the hall. Kaiba didn't bother to tell them it was a waste of time, because it really wasn't, since he had Serenity after him. Thinking about it sent a bit of horrific laughter scratching at her throat as they sped walked through the crowds, looking a lot like visitors, except Ann with the few bruises on her face and looking at her hand (the one sliced on Kakra's blade) now a white line, only another scar to worry about. So much for stitches. The skin covered it up like freaking cancer, healing it in about two days instead of six weeks. Even flexing her hand, the palm was completely healed up, some kind of flipping miracle, making her more scared of it than joyous. Shaking her head a bit annoyed a small tingling at the back of her head; she dismissed it as an on coming headache and started hurriedly to the bright double doors to freedom. Only to have it blocked by the group of wandering girls who immediately froze at the sight of Bakura's unmistakable white haired bolts. 

"Ah shit." Ann started as she felt Bakura's eyes go wide behind her, darting for the quickest exit when Bill looked at her to Bakura to Kaiba (looking completely bored at the time), to the girls.

"Let me handle this." Bill walked out to the space in between them, right in the middle, and stood a moment. 

            Now, if you had known Bill particularly well before he had went traveling into the anime world like Ann did, you would've know that no girl in her right mind would ever thing of him a handsome or cute. Just annoying and geeky at first glance, a reason why Ann had found him so like able when she had first met him way back when, a time she could scarcely remember except to be a hilarious joke she had over heard in the fourth grade that came from him. Her twisted sense of logic, which she had inherited from reading so many fiction books, told her that those kinds of people were the best to trust, since most people over looked them. She was an over looked person so she should know. The people that keep themselves unseen, which was their best talent and greatest flaw about them, they always had it. Why she had been scared shitless by Yugi on the bus that day about a year ago, watching his eyes watching them as they did everyone else. But Bill was busy now using his gift/flaw to his advantage on these girls, to expect them to run away or look disgusted with him and run off making fun of him or just plain scared. A reason why she had all the confidence and assurance knocked out of him when from out of nowhere from the back of the group some girl said something so loudly it was almost unnatural for a girl to even talk about in the open.

"He's cute!" His face when suddenly white and turned about to Bakura (looking the same pasty color knowing the inevitable torture had finally arrived) Bill's voice croaked with complete understanding what Bakura was going through for the every first time in his short life.

"Run guys." Bakura was out of the hall faster than lightning with Bill at his back, sprinting for there lives as the girls ran past Ann and Kaiba,( both blinking with surprise) the crowd not noticing them as they shouted things that disturbed Ann's tomboyish mind.

"God they sound like my sister." Kaiba rolled his eyes and followed the crowd at a slow pace, disgruntled and very close to being beyond pissed off at this charade as he stepped lightly forward with that bad ass attitude flickering under his skin and through his eyes. Ann followed with the greatest caution, knowing that she shouldn't get him at all angry at this point. The consequences would be catastrophic. 

            His trench coat swished evilly behind him, like in the movie The Matrix; in that scene were Neo walks in with all the guns to save Morpheous, yeah that one. She expected him to pull out those sunglasses and suddenly do some karate or something but remembered she was dealing with Cartoons, not action movies. Sighing, they stumbled upon both boys frantically sprinting back at them, Bill somehow in the lead, and then tripping and sliding onto the floor, sending Bakura down on him from behind to Kaiba's boots in a cluttered out-of-breath mess. Kaiba lifted his fogged up jet black boots and casually walked over them and stood right in front of the mob of girls, now stopping three feet away from Kaiba, looking startled at his appearance, and regained their wits and started glaring at him.

"What do you want?" Asked a blonde girl with a high ponytail, wearing lots of pink eye shadow and looking every much like a cheerleader. Kaiba leaned his stern grim face almost two inches in front of her's, ducking since she was a lot shorter than him, and breathed at her evilly. 

"Get your damn friends the hell out of here. Now." He got a girlish glare and her small nose turned up at him, but still she was smart enough to know when she could win a fight and lose one, and simply stamped off from the distasteful scene. The mob looked at her then to Kaiba's pissed off face, and decided to go with her. A series of angry groans and glares sounded as each girl stamped off defeated, hating Seto Kaiba more than ever. Ann, mean while, was actually happy with him for that one rare moment. Bakura gave him the biggest look of gratitude in his whole entire life and kept giving him murmured thank yous as Bill almost attempted to kiss him with over joyed laughter practically shouting words of praise at him. Kaiba shook them off and gave Bakura the smallest 'think nothing of it' he could say and told Bill to shut up as they trotted off and out the door easily for once.

            Fresh air filled Ann's lungs as she took the first step out onto the pavement, wanting to raise her arms up at the first gust of wind that greeted her warmly. Her hair rose up and scattered around, messing it up and pushing it into her eyes, as did Bakura, but Kaiba and Bill were unaffected since there hair was too short. Instead her hands were placed behind her head and her elbows forced out, her arms looking like triangles, as another friendly gust took the flapping parts of her clothing and showed the figure underneath for what it truly was. She was glad no one was watching and with a blushed expression pressed her arms around her to keep that from happening again and walked on with the group, wondering if Yami and Yugi and the others were still sitting in the hospital. If they were, I think they'd know by now that it was a quick get away and probably were they were headed. When Bill took the wrong turn and the opposite way to his house Ann's curiosity suddenly flared with wonderment.

"Where are we going?"

"To get some fast food, a public place near the heart of the city so we can get everywhere we might need to go in a quick way." 

"Why?" Bill gave her a sly look as Kaiba looked at the street signs boredly, his hands shoved deep in his trench coat.

"I need Kaiba to hunt through some records on the internet, mostly likely hack into if you want the truth with his handy dandy laptop." Kaiba glared at him and quickly tried to kick him square in the back of his shin, but Bill nimbly jumped away.

"What for?" Ann asked perplexed more than ever.

"I need to find some records…of every male in all the hospitals in the city in the past two days that has been treated for a broken arm…" Ann immediately knew what he was up to at that, and smiled at his old sense of cunning.

"How do you know they'll use a hospital for treatment?" Bakura asked, "Why not just use magic or heal him in the ancient ways?" that was a good question.

"Well…I didn't _say_ he was in a hospital at any point. I just want to get an advantage if they deiced to get sloppy in there get aways. Better to stop them sooner than later. Less chaos that way." Bakura and Ann nodded with agreement; Kaiba just ignored them as usual.

"What place?"

"Out in the open. They won't attack in broad day light in a busy crowd around us, too many wandering eyes; we should be safer there than picked off in some dark alley. We need to wait for rush hour, and then in the mob I can shake everyone off and get to the house safely."

"Why not just kick there asses?" Ann asked, knowing Joey would've liked to ask that question if he was here.

"With you in _that_ condition? I doubt you could even sock me with a good punch or the tiniest spell your mind could make. Ammon says you need to rest your soul, to replenish it before you run off into the depths of battle. At least you'll have a better chance of winning that way."   Okay, she would admit that all of that was true, mournfully yes but she admitted it in her mind. However, her head was starting to buzz pretty bad now, feeling like her head was beginning to split in two she lightly placed her hand on the back of her skull to stop its annoying sound. It was a while before anyone noticed her eyes squinted up with pain.

"Hey are you okay?" Bill's voice inquired. 

"No… it just feels like someone is hacking my skull apart with a chainsaw… would _You_ be okay?" This was starting to hurt like hell, feeling it in throbs as something in the back of her head wiggled deeper, stopped a moment, and pressed onward into her brain. It was slowly getting worse.

"…Not a worm digging in headache…Right?"

"No…" 

"Oh shit."

"What?" Her eyes shot open, to a blurred dark world and Bill's worried expression, standing right in front of her.

"Okay. Ammon told me about one of these. Okay…Okay, Listen to me. Someone is trying to hack into your mind…like a computer hard drive… you need to but a fire wall up." Ann's jaw dropped but re clenched with a sudden bolt of pain. Of all the times to hack into her own skull it had to be now. Sighing annoyed she looked at Bill for further instruction.

"Clear your mind. Quick. Then think of a brick wall. Doing it before they get whatever info they're after, that is if they haven't found it already…" Ann ignored his last comment and franticly cleared her head, recalling only for haft a second that she had read something like this in a Stephen King book once, and started to build a brick wall fast. The pain lessened, making her sigh with some relief.  Then she felt suddenly blown back as the wall practically bursted and a brief flash of a huge smile appeared before a horrible pain filled every bit of her nerves and almost sent her tumbling down before she regained herself and felt it reseed and she turned back to normal, or she should've. No. Something had just made it's self cushy in her own mind, somewhere in the many doors that she had created. Something was wrong.

"Ann? Is it gone? Are you a hundred percent okay?"

"No." 

"Is it… eating any of you…?" It was a startling question that Ann preserved as a no, she felt like she was all there, there was just something extra camping out in her third door now, she could feel it moving around in there, reaching for all her secret thoughts. She suddenly turned boiling mad.

"Get the hell out." She whispered, wondering if it would work, listening to Bill take a worried step back.

"Ann?" He was clearly wondering if she was she.

"Yeah. I'm still here. It's just in my damn thoughts, reading everything."

"Which ones?" Ann hesitated, aware of Bakura's and Kaiba's presence. Nut what choice did she have?

"In the Daydream ones." Bill sighed with some relief.

"Can you keep it in there?"

"No. It smashed my wall to pieces. How the hell do you expect me to keep it locked up?" She spat at him, feeling very crazy just sanding there listening to Bill calmly talking about something horrible.

"I dunno, it's your mind… I suggest you go talk with it, at least get it to stall while I get Ammon."

"…Alright." Better go to see what's she's dealing with and just sit there and dread it. Concentrating she plunged herself out into her daydream door and peered through the eye hole her mind created, looking at a brown eye just like her's, making her leap back in some surprise on the soft grass.

"Hello? Ann? Are you out there?" She blinked with complete and udder shock and gripped the handle of the door fast as it started to turn.

"Who the hell are you?!" It wasn't Bakura's other half, it wasn't even her own, and most certainly wasn't Marik or Malik. Yet it was familiar, which in any case scared the shit out of her.

"Ann! So that is you! Come on let me out or come in. We need to talk in private." The voice was cooing her, a bubbly giggle almost convincing her to open the door, almost. She fought it and kept her hands clenched down on the knob in total fear. But the other force was stronger.

"Oh come now Ann. I'm stronger than you. I made you that way." Ann's hands froze as she turned to the door with utter surprise.

"Who the fuc-"

"We don't have much time. I've come to tell you some things."

"What things?" Ann inquired through the door, scared beyond shitless, eyes darting from the eye hole to the door knob. A chuckle sounded from the other side.

"Stubborn. Come on. Don't be afraid of me…let's talk…while I still have time."

"You hack into my head and read my most secret of thoughts. Give me one good reason why I should trust you!!!" She was using her angry to cover up her fear now, puffing hard to keep the knob from turning. There was a brief silence.

"Because, Annora, I've saved your life a number of times, your honor code says that you at least have to pay me back." That "Code" had been a secret, not in that room at all, not in any room, but kept in her pocket on her dream self standing there dumbfounded.

"…How the hell do you know that?! How in god's name can you know that?!" 

"Open the door Ann… and I can tell you everything."

BookDragon: "Bet you didn't see that coming."

Bill: "Tell her if it sucks with a review okay?"


	12. DayDream Library

BookDragon: 0_0 "Oh shit! I never expected this to get this far!"

Bill: "It's longer than your last story."

BookDragon: "On with the story I guess."

Chapter 12: Daydream Library

            Ann stood frozen, eyes flickering with rapid thoughts, while she held the door of her mind shut, wondering if it was such a good idea to open it. She knew whatever was behind it that it was familiar with not only her but even the most precous of her dreams and fantasies, which could be extremely bad. Since that she could be boycotted and trapped into the own part of her mind. Crazy? Yes, but hey, anything could happen. And that was an other point. _Any_ thing could happen. So far out in this thoughts she barely noticed the other entity( if it was even that) was making that clock noise as if it was only giving her a certain amount of time.

"Tick-Tock, tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock, tick-tock …BBBZZZ!" Ann shot back to life when the door knob furiously started to giggle and twist franticly under her sweaty palms. All the while she was breathing hard trying to keep her grip from slipping as her foot carefully paced itself onto the frame of the door as the other slightly muffled voice started at her again. When she deicded to let the door come open she let her grip slip when suddenly out of no where a peach colored hand flew out and grabbed it and slammed the door shut hard. Ann turned to Bill, who know was also exploring inside her head at the moment (for the right moment at least), amazed.

"No?" She asked him. He shook his head firously and suddenly had his arm jerked violently from the other side of the door.

"No."

"Oh COME ON! Let me out! You can't expect to keep _ME_ in here." The voice protested on the other side. Bill looked at it confused a moment but kept the door tightly shut. 

"Who the HELL are you?!" Ann asked, trying to look and sound confident in front Bill to make sure she wouldn't worry.

"That is what I wish to speak to you about SILLY! But it is not safe in that part of your mind, now if you would just open this door-"

"Why? How do you know who I am? How can you know about the Code?! How can you know!?!" Suddenly the door knob stopped it violent fit with an erriy silence.

"Why…Is that Bill?" His eyes flashed wide with shock.

"Billyboy, Open the door." Bill blinked but held the knob with the strongest force in him.

"Where's Ammon?" Ann asked.

"I left him a message on our answering machine…the mind one…yeah I know it sounds weird but it works… I don't think he's gonna be back to check it for a while…" Bill told Ann hurriedly, almost getting his arm ripped off with a server pull from the knob again. He shouted a couple of curses and kept the door completely shut.

"What should we do until then?"

"You should open the door." 

"SHUT UP!" Bill shouted at the door with a furious kick at the end. That was something he would regret. The door's fit broke and two very loud bangs exploded on the other side, enough to send a 'get the hell out of here vibe' up Ann's spine as a loud voice bellowed into her ears painfully.

/ENOUGH OF THIS MOCKERY. OPEN THE DOOR/ Ann's eyes where sent up with water as Bill took his hand back from the door with such speed she had never seen before, tucking it into his arm pit as he screamed. The door was left to slowly creak open to engulf them in the light that usual poured out when she entered, and there was standing someone Ann had seen before, but only vaguely. Being portaited as black a few moments for a moment she thought she was dreaming that weird fog filled room dream again, only to have it pulled out from under her as the light slowly lit her up. She was Ann's height. Probably because she looked just like her. Her hair was straight and dripping on the wood floor of the door entrance, making small puddles, as she stared at them with a slightly angry but reliefed face on. It was her face, her nose, her mouth, her eye brows…but her eyes were different. Brown orbs with cuts of gold, very pretty on her face. Her clothes were dry, a silky long blue sweater with a pair of fluffy black pants, and deep dark green thick hunter socks meet the floor. Ann's heart sank to the worst thing she had been expecting; an other one of her doubles. 

            Those curiously deep eyes took a small glance at Bill but stared at Ann with all their fullness, somehow starting to beam at her with some kind of unknown pride Ann had never had such a pleasure to see. It didn't help her opinion of her other double however. She flinched as the new self embraced her in a strong bear hug and lifted her steadily off the ground, Ann eyes widened with horror at her strength. She was twirled around for a brief moment, feeling much like she was five again, and was placed lightly on her feet with strong arms still wrapped around her shaking body; she was terrified. Her other other just smiled, a bit of  her mother's smile that Ann could plainly see, but her eyes seemed to be glowing and taking all of her in, making this more of an aquared moment instead of a terrifying or joyous one. The girl sighed, a brief puff of air, and started a small giggle.

"If only you could know how much I will treasure this moment." She took a deep breath into her lungs and slowly let it loose, beaming with such pride Ann was almost afraid of.

"…Who are you?" Her voice croaked, for the finally time. She smiled and let her go at the fright in her tone.

"You shouldn't be afraid of me…well not as much as you are…come. We have many things to discuss…bring Billyboy will you?" She started away into the door calmly without looking at Bill, who looked very much like a corpse with the lack of color, and left the door hanging open.

"Bill are you alright?" Ann asked him with a quizzaled moment, looking at his hand in his arm pit a bit considered, and glancing at the door every few seconds. Bill was slow to reply.

"…I think I am…I got all my fingers at least…" He slowly took it out and looked at the red spread on his palm rather disgustedly.

"God. She burned my hand…oh." The red started to disappeared rapidly as Bill was said that and her voice sung its way back to them.

"Think nothing of it Billyboy. Sorry, I just lost my temper." Ann started curiously at the door, knowing Bill was staring at her. He was probably wondering what she was going to make of this situation. She would be going. There were just so many questions she had to ask, that even needed to be answered. The first question has to begin now. 

"Are you coming Bill?" He hesitated, flexing his hand and thinking hard.

"you're inviting me into your dreams? Sure you want to do that?"

"It's not like I got a choice. You do." Another pause.

"What do you think are doing?"  Bill asked.

"Wondering what the hell is wrong with us. That's what I'd be doing."

"Should we wait for Yami or Ammon to show up?"

"Nah. They'd probably do the same thing." Ann answered.

"…Then let's go." He shifted toward the doorway.

"Oh. Um…It may be a bit hectic in there…so if you tell anyone about this I will personally have to kill you." Bill shurged.

"We all have your secrets." He disappeared into the light. Ann slowly shook her head, not quiet believing this was accually happening, and stepped in side.

            The place was huge. Ann was a bit surprised at how large she had made it, or even how she could have made it. If you accually entered the doors of her memories, they wouldn't flop and flow out of the room, they would probably be seen as a hall of tv screens. But this room was different, since she made this room to begin with she personally contained them, probably because she felt they were extremely embarrassing. She portated them each as a book to contain them, which most of them originated from anyway. So, naturally, this place was constracted to be a library. It was contructed in a  circular spiral, why she wasn't sure, probably because she had seen it in a movie or something and thought it correct. The spiral went what seemed like forever upward and forever downward, which didn't surprise her, it had to last her whole life, even went she became an adult. Let's face it, they still have their fantasies. And even if this place was somehow forgotten, it would still have to exist because they were part of her childhood memories, and that was just a part of life. The door she entered opened to the middle of this spiral, or around the middle she guessed, she thought she was probably on level five or six, maybe. Hopefully. 

            Ann felt both lost and familiar with this place. She was taken back, and almost fell back at the beauty of it. The dim golden sense of light came from the never ending ceiling above, shinning down the large circle opening down to the grayed bottom, over the black iron railing that fenced in the curcular ramps leading both up and down, allowing access to the shelves upon shevles of booked daydreams lining the walls on the door side of the massive room. The shelves were built of chestnut wood, unlike the door, which was made of only maple. They were dully polished and gleamed a reddish brown tinge to the widdled wood with spirals looking much like symbols. The floor was wooden, oak most likely, down and up, all of the ramp and was extremely polished, to reflect the light into all the cracks. 

"I didn't know you decorated so fashonably." Bill remarked with a large smirk on his face, leaning over the edge of the twisting jet black rail, to see both down and up.       

"I didn't either." She told him with an awed voice, which sprung an amused look on his face at her. 

"Where do you think…she…ran off to?" Bill asked, a bit worried, but trying to be fearless, making Ann want to crack up.

"I don't know, probably reading…" As if on cue she appeared right in front of them, a giggle coming into their ears like the volume on a computer getting turned up. She looked at them through a pair of oval shaped reading glasses sitting on the bridge of her nose, with laughing eyes and a cocky grin showing a row of white teeth. She held a paperback turquoise book in her small ghostly hand, opened in the middle and having a bent spine in sevral places.

"Glad you could join me." Her grin was speard a larger smile, cheerful and almost comforting. She looked back to the book and dog eared the left page and quickly slammed the book shut, making Ann flinch, and continue to watch the girl's eyes swish and dart around the room and to the book. Then she took a deep breath and took the pair of glasses off, showing a beaming pair of brown-deep yellow eyes at Ann yet again.

"I love your library. What a unique collection of characters and interesting plots, best place to spend a rainy day. I like the way you think. But then, I made you that way." Ann and Bill looked at each other sideways and turned back to her a bit nervous.

"Who are you?" Those treebark brown sun golden eyes blinked again at Ann's question.

"I am you. You're me. We're one in the same Ann. Except there is a small difference. I just am the original. You and your/our doubles are based on me/you. We are all based on each other and not just on me. This isn't over your head is it Billyboy?" He shook his head vigously no. There was no need to ask Ann, I mean they were practically twins, no reason to ask yourself if you get something or not.

"…are you god or something?" Her original immeidately sent her head up and started cackling with a scrunged up face like someone just told a hiliarious joke, making Ann and Bill take a step back with some surprise and let her laugh it out. It took her a few moments to get over it and look at them seriously again with blushed cheeks.

"Of course not. I said I was the original. Yes I may have thought each of you up, Ann, but that doesn't mean I excactly created you, sure I say I made you, but it's not really the same thing."

"Oh."

"What should be call you then?" Bill asked her with a flat tone. Her look tossed to him quickly, kind of unfriendly but giving him respect all the same.

"…Call me…Calendae. It means first in Latin, just to tell you it's not my real name. I'm not allowed to say you my real name I'm sorry to say." That made sense.

"Okay…Calendae…why aren't you allowed to say?" Ann asked. Calendae wagged her index finger at her like she was a naughty child.

"Now that too is off limits, Sorry Ann, be glad I can even come at all to help you."

"Help? With what?"

"With Kakra you big silly. I have to be there to see the fight qwell. It's part of my job to sort out this matter of myself battling my self."

"Why would you do that?" She asked her, feeling sort of babied but grateful that she could relate to someone like herself for once. Calendae paused a moment, much like Ann does when she doesn't know how to answer something.

"…would you save yourself from danger?"

"…maybe." That caused a weird look toward Ann by Bill. Calen nodded understandably.

"Yes, I know what you mean. It's all in here, all around you. It's one of the flaws created to make you different, it's something I'm not so familiar with, it's guilt?" Ann nodded.

"Yes. It's all in the books…shall we go?"

"Go where?" Calendae grinned widely and grabbed one of those wheeling laders they have in those very tall libraries that just suddenly appeared there, why not? It was just her mind anyway. She placed a careful footed sock on it and held on tight when it took off, laughing as her hair swept in the created wind as she went to her left…down. Bill looked at her then to Ann questioningly and found her getting on another lader.

"Coming Bill?" She asked him almost cheerfully.

"Where are we going?" He asked a bit timidly.

"…Down." Ann kicked off the lader and started going left, leaving Bill his own to follow her if he dared, as it slowly picked up speed to the fake gravity she had created with the moving air and wind. 

"WATCH OUT! I'm coming too!" And she was sure Calendae heard her, but so did everyone else standing around her on the sidewalk back in her body, with Bill's hand clasped on her motionless shoulder as Kaiba shouted into his cell phone that he needed to talk to Ammon now. Bakura was busy calling Yami at the hospital on a payphone he found down the street. It would be a few minutes before they could get there, something about a fight with Joey and Marie, he couldn't tell exactly what about but it sounded serious, so he hung up and started back. Hoping they would be back to normal at some point soon. Probably because he was sure they were being watched. And it felt like his other. They were so close to them. They would come soon.

BookDragon: "Review please."         


	13. Kaiba Corp…A safe house?

Bill:*clears throat* "I will be writing the fic today! MMHAHAHAHAHAH! YOU WILL ALL BOW BEFORE THE NEW AUTH-"

BookDragon: *taps foot.* "Sorry I'm late Bill…"

Bill: *face white* "Er…there you are…I… er…got to change the wash!" *runs off*

BookDragon: "That's what I thought you said."

Chapter 13: Kaiba CORB…A safe house?!

"HEY! WHEN……STOP?!" Bill screamed over the roaring wind howling in Ann's ears, making her whip her head to him in surprise to him behind her, still clinging to the ladder as he carefully keep his body close to the poles to keep the air from whipping at him too much. It was hard to see him through the crazy of brown streaks her hair was causing, but she gathered that much from brief glances that she was allowed. Otherwise, she could only hear and watch his lips moving to complete get the question. When she finally did her watering brown orbs quickly lit up with understanding and her head whipped back into the hard wind and started screaming up to Calendae.

"WE…NEED…STOP!" Was all she heard of her own voice, but oddly enough Calendae seemed to understand her perfectly, and so with a single nod of her head the ladder just stopped. With a deep gasp of surprise Ann closed her eyes, feeling like she would crash, but instead the rattling of her own ladder calmed and slowed to a complete halt. Bill's didn't slow so nicely. Instead, it jerked to a stop and sent him flying off, so far off that he tumbled over the makeshift black iron rail and into the abyss below.

            At first, Ann was sure Bill would flip back over the rail like some hilarious joke just occurred, but after seconds of waiting she realized her friend would be trapped in whatever was below in her own mind. Springing tears to her eyes until Calendae finally rolled her eyes and walked calmly to the rail and held out a firm arm. Blinking slightly ticked off that she rolled her eyes at her; Ann watched curiously when a familiar sound broke their breathing.

"Ssssshhhhhiiiittttttttt. OWFF!" and out of the sky Bill plummeted into Calendae's outward grasp and pulled safely back over the side and onto the floor like a rag doll. Calendae just watched him breath heavily on the floor, grateful he was alive, so was Ann of course. It was another thing she was saved from having life long guilt from. And Calendae seemed to know it. When she looked up from Bill Calendae's gaze was piercing her with a cocky smirk, then back to Bill with the same look.

"Don't tell anyone I never did you any favors." It was clearly a joke with such a grin placed on her face, but Ann didn't feel much like laughing at that moment. Bill gave her a small chuckle, weak but definitely glad to be alive and kicking.

"Is this our destination?"

"I suppose." Ann lifted her eyebrows.

"You suppose?" Calendae shrugged.

"Your mind may be based on mine but I'm not exactly _you_. Kakra is a good example."  That was true. Ann found herself nodding at Calendae but watching Bill get up off the ground and go over to the bookcase, apparently curiosity finally got the better of him. A flare of anger arose but she immediately dowsed it, after all she _did_ let Bill in here after all. But still she had to do something.

"Haven't you ever heard of curiosity killed the cat?" Bill pulled out a nice blue book after reading the spine a moment, and looked back at her with a huge grin on his face.

"Yeah but he still had eight lives." He opened the binding humorously, and stopped dead when the pages started ruffling and a cloud of smoke started swirling, making the book shake violently. Bill's eyes widened with amazement rather than fear as suddenly, like in those holograms, a huge lizard head erupted from out of the pages, shooting upward as the head gained more height than all of them, looming over Bill, and finally stopped at the bottom of its neck was sitting on the paper. Behind its scaly green checks gleamed two marble size bright purple eyes, looking directly at Bill, and ignoring Calendae and its creator. Ann wasn't surprised. She had thought a lot about this stuff before Yu-Gi-Oh had existed, it was mostly what she read, so it was practically a given when she started reading. There was a paused breath, both from Bill and it, and then it bared a nest of teeth, all the size of knives and just as sharp. Ann's eyes widened a bit, surprised at the reaction, and almost panicked when its mouth opened wider and started to come down upon Bill's unprotected head, his astounded arrogant face for that matter. It started to come down, breathing huge gust of wind from its a gab mouth of thousands triangular teeth letting a bit of spit drip onto him, and start to sizzle on his flapping clothing. He didn't notice the shoulder blade of his shirt going up in smoke until Calendae quickly slammed the book shut. The head immediately wisped away like the smoke on Bill's shoulder, making him blink as well as Ann, just starting to hear what Calendae was saying.

"You are impossible! Would you have let that thing KILL you?!" She breathed at him annoyed, waking him up from the trance to her steaming face, then suddenly turned to Ann and elbowed her hard in the side.

"OW! What was that for?!"

"You didn't stop your dragon! It's YOUR creation! He would have been killed!" Bill's expression turned firry but his lips remained sealed, which was a bit strange for Bill's character. Maybe he knew she was right. Ann already knew that, so she only nodded and decided not to pursue the subject. Calendae's glare turned down a bit, but still she was slightly ticked off, it would take her a few minutes to cool off. It always did with Ann anyway.

            As for Bill, he was dismissing that insult and now taking another look at the bindings intently, but not taking one off the shelf now. After a few moments he turned to Ann with a look containing both bafflement and surprise.

"I don't see any romance books here…" Ann snorted an annoyed grunt.

"You think all girls have to have the cuddly girly-girl side? I've had my experiences, and I'd rather not deal with it." Calendae turned a surprised glance to her.

"No love? Oh dear. That's a surprising thought. I have plenty of romance in my daydream section…" Ann didn't say anything; she dared not let her tomboyish mind travel to that door of her subconscious. It was only when Bill smirked and pulled out a very fluffy hot pink book and waved it in her face that Ann was suddenly confused.

"What is that?" Bill's smirk widened.

"You tell me." Without waiting for an answer he flipped the book open and instead of some dream boy came a fluffy white rabbit. It hopped onto the floor a moment and started to clean its ears when another dragon head busted from the open book and ate it, little spats of blood hitting his shirt disgustedly as the little white bunny let out a last squeal and that huge scaly checks started chewing on the remains. Bill immediately closed it with a pasty expression and carefully placed the book back on the shelf.

"I can't believe you could be so ruthless." Calendae's voice moaned as tears sprung to her eyes at the horrible sight. Ann shrugged.

"Hey, I'd never actually do a thing like that; it's just some of the stuff that pops to mind. Can we continue?" 

"WHOA LOOK AT THIS!!!" Bill suddenly shouted, causing Ann to sigh as she turned to Bill about five feet off the ground on the ladder and pulling out a colossal size volume. Giddily he climbed back down slowly, being careful not to drop it, and landed safely back down with it, arousing Calendae's curiosity as Ann looked at the forgotten book. Bill quickly blew off the thick layer of dust like blowing out the candles on one's birthday cake, and read aloud the golden title on the leather bound novel.

"YUGIOH! NO WAY!" A grin so wide imbedded onto his face as he started to fumble with the large lock on the side, but it steadily turned to a frown as he found that he couldn't open it.

"Shit."

"I don't let people that easily into my dreams, especially those. You should know better Bill." His brown eyes turned hopefully to her face.

"Aw come on, let us read a couple…"

"No."

"Please?"

"No.

"With cherries on top?"

"NO!" Bill sulked. Ann ignored him and turned to Calendae, wanting to finish this annoying gallivanting, besides, she was starting to get a headache. She opened her mouth to speak but immediately closed it when her head shot up in the direction of the door.

"Uh oh."

"What?" Calendae's head turned back but her eyes where darting around in her skull like popcorn in a popcorn popper, making Ann more worried because she knew out of her own experience that that something was wrong. Before she could ask what again a loud buzzing voice crept into her head.

"SHIT!" Ann paused confused at it.

"SCREW THEM. LET'S GO!" That was Kaiba, but was he talking about them? It would figure, he had always been a slime ball. Ann grunted annoyed while Bill just blinked with some confusion.

"It figures, I'm glad you don't know them…Calendae?" She was gone. Blinking Ann turned to Bill's startled face.

"Where'd she go?" That set Ann worrying a bit more, enough to clamor back onto the ladder quickly.

"I think something wrong. You got to get back to your body, and I got to get back to reality. Get on a ladder."

"What about Calendae?"

"She can hang around in here as long as she wants. I'll just talk to her later…hopefully. Just GO already!" Bill jumped onto his ladder and started whipping back up the ramp as Ann's started to gain on his, twisting the laws of physics enough for Bill to notice.

"SCREW GRAVITY!" She heard him shout before the wind got too bad. Ann just clawed onto the wood and held herself steady.

            They got to the door faster than before, making Ann wonder if she or he had done anything to speed up the trip, but she was too worried to ask. Instead, Bill just threw the door open and sprinted out onto the grass and was about to throw open the other door into his own mind when he remembered something. He turned and threw the book that he accidentally carried all the way back at her with a small smile and twisted the knob open and leaped into his own body again, leaving Ann throwing the book to the side of her own mind and somehow jumping back to the controls of her own in a spinning sensation.

            When her eyes fluttered open she was watching the sidewalk flying underneath her. Blinking to remove the blurred spots she slowly realized it wasn't her feet carrying her, but someone else's. A bit dazed, but slowly getting use to the semi real world again, she turned to Bakura sweating but startled face and noted that he was carrying her. Why did this always happen to her?

"What's going on?" She asked him, but he was running to fast to spare any time to talk. He needed the time to actually breathe enough to feed his muscles, and only rolled his eyes at her and looked back in front. A bit hurt, Ann curved her gaze to what he was looking at, which turned out to be Kaiba running as fast as she had ever seen in her life with Bill slung over his shoulder. It was somewhat humorous to watch Bill being knocked around with his stomach being forced into Kaiba's shoulder blade, with Bill wincing not from that but probably the pressure Kaiba was putting on the back of his knee caps, most likely cutting off the blood flow. Ann would've started laughing if she wasn't in the same position, except facing the front of where they were going unlike Bill that was being carried backward. It was also that fact that he was yelling at Kaiba to run faster with his eyes wide in fright. This twisted her attention to what was behind them instead of in front of them.

            She should have figured, practically right behind Bakura's back was his double gaining on him, almost close enough to touch him for that matter with Malik close behind him, Kakra was nowhere to be found but Ann suspected she was close by. He was too close for comfort, _way_ too close. It was even worse to know that Bakura was surely getting tired; having to sprint with at least a hundred pounds of extra weight on his shoulders was unbearable. Ann was surprised they weren't dead. If she could get off him and started running she would have, but he was too close and the moment she got off he would be upon her and she would surely be dead, but Bakura would be alive. What a horrible thing to think about when one just wakes up from a nice dream. Shaking her head Ann knew she would have to get off, so she started unhooking Bakura's fingers off her back to let go of her. He gave her a startled look and blinked at her a moment, as if saying not to. That was a weird statement coming from Bakura and she was surprised not to find herself in a panic, but now looking straight at Bill. He kept kicking his legs, like he was trying to tell her something. When he shouted as loud as possible, making Kaiba wince a moment because he was practically bellowing in his ear, was she heard the message.

"KICK THE SON OF A BITCH!" Not even thinking about it, Ann shot her leg backward without looking and hoped to god that she at least hit him as she slid of Bakura's back and grabbed onto his sweater to keep herself in pace. She was glad when no pair of hands grabbed her neck but immediately started to grimace at the sudden amount of work placed upon the muscles in her legs, suddenly reminding her of horrible never ending gym classes. All she could really do was keep pushing Bakura to go forward in front of her and gripping his sweater harder when they took sharp turns just to keep herself from falling. The minutes felt like hours, just trying to out run them, which she was now sure would never happen. T.R probably was use to this; steal tombs did mean you had to be fast didn't it? So why did they think they could out run them? 

Because Bill was here. 

            Ann was practically sure that Bill was concocting some huge plan to get out of this fine mess in that skull of his, probably magical, now that he could do it in all. So she wasn't the least bit surprised when she finally saw Bill's head pop up above Bakura's and point his finger much like a gun right behind her and shouted something to make a huge blue light blast out from the tip of his fingers and crash right behind where Ann's foot had just been. She heard a surprised roar and the sound of acorns hitting the top of a person's car with the crackling of tinfoil to know he just tired to freeze them with some kind of ice blast. When she heard him scream damn it she knew it hadn't worked and watched intently as he flexed his finger a moment and tired to do it again, but instead ducked. A fireball about the size of a basketball sailed right over his head, a bit of the hair on his head started smoldering after it pasted. He didn't notice as he popped back up and launched another ice bullet thing.  Ann guessed he didn't care much that they were in broad daylight and using magic openly. Hopefully it wouldn't hit or kill anyone else, but at this point she was being a bit more selfish than usual. Besides, it would probably come out sooner or later, even thought it would've been better later. But even if they didn't want them to know, there had to be some kind of this to erase this from there heads, yeah T.R could do it, know that she remembered, maybe he would after wards. Most likely. For know she had to worry about getting the hell out of there. So she started looking all possible exits where they could lose them, but Kaiba was way a head of them she soon realized because when they started climbing up a pair of familiar stairs she knew they were at Kaiba CORB. What a funny place to end up, Ann found herself thinking before she almost tripped on a step. At that moment she was almost sure she wasn't going to make it, that they would catch her and she would surely be dead. It seemed like it, but she got a sudden jerk from the back that regulated her balance that sent her up and running up the last few steps and into the sudden small gust she supposed to be a door being jerked open and ran the last few feet without getting caught into the door frame and out the other side when the door slammed behind them.

            She ran into Bakura when he stopped and fell onto the ground laughing her head off at such a close death encounter, listening to Kaiba dump Bill onto the floor with a loud smack.

"OW! Hey watch it!" Bill yelled as Bakura collapsed to the floor in exhaustion with Ann rolling around on her stomach still laughing. Kaiba was looking at her like she was marked officially insane but she didn't care. He looked a bit relieved when she finally stopped her laughing fit and sat up rather reluctantly.

"How long will that hold for Kaiba?"

"Long enough to get security."

"Are you sure?" Kaiba glared at Bill instantly, causing him to gulp and take that as his answer. Kaiba then dug into his pockets and pulled out a black cell phone and started pushing numbers, ignoring both Ann and Bakura on the ground, and started talking furiously into the phone.

"I want a force of guards out there now." She heard a muttered "yes sir" out of the phone and supposed they would be here in a couple of minutes when Kaiba slammed the phone shut and buried it back into his pockets. There were a few minutes of silence when Bakura was finally able to talk.

"What do we do now?" he asked haft heartedly. Kaiba just looked at him a moment with one of those looks like 'you really don't know?' and finally said.

"We wait."

BookDragon: "Review please."


	14. My aibou?

BookDragon: "Hey, thanks for waiting…the weekly chapter is up and-"

Bill: "AAAHHHHHH!!!! RUNNN AAAWWWAAAYYY!!!" *Zooms by*

BookDragon:*raises eyebrow* "wwhhhhaaaaa???" 0_0

BookDragon: "RUN AWAY!" *Runs off just in time to be chased by a washing machine that is waddling at deadly speed with bubbles spewing from the door*

Bill: READ THE STORY PLEASE!!!AAAHHHH!!! 

Chapter 14: My _aibou_?

"Okay, I spy with my little eye something…blue."

"Kaiba's coat?"

"No."

"The carpet?"

"No."

"Try eyes, Bakura." Ann finally said bored to death. Bill turned a startled look at her.

"How did you know?"

"It's the last thing that's blue." Bill looked around a bit at his surroundings, finding that it was almost completely dark, but knowing from the last time he was here that the escalators were behind them to the elevators surrounded with very plan cream-colored walls. Bill and Bakura where sitting crossed legged on the floor near the dead step, Ann sat on the end of the railing of the escalators, and Kaiba just stood on the third step stiffly watching them. Most certainly as boring as all get out.

"How can you know that the carpet, Kaiba's coat, and his eyes, are the only things that are blue in here if it's so dark?"

"I'm not visually impaired, Bill." She could see him give her a look through the almost pitch black. She grinned.

"Don't at me like that." Was her response to that little test of her night vision. Bill frowned a little but perked up again when Bakura started the game again. Kaiba was already sick of them though, so Bakura only had time to challenge blue, black, and white until Kaiba finally protested.

"WILL YOU TWO MORONS KNOCK IT OFF!?" Bakura recoiled at such a mind numbing shout and started clearing his ears with his index finger as Bill looked at Kaiba distastefully.

"Why?"

"Because it's extremely _irritating_."

"It's better than just sitting in silence to listen to the banging of doom thank you very much."

"Not much." Kaiba replied icily, that tone he loves to use when someone should leave him alone. Bill picked up his horrible mood and dropped the subject, it was better not to provoke him in such a state. He was probably very sick of them, or Bill at least. Bill 'could' get a bit annoying when it came to it, but he never really meant it. Ann sighed as another loud BANG hit the darkened door directly after what seemed like the hundredth time. Personally, it was getting very tiring. She couldn't believe they had such a lack of imagination. But then again she wasn't in the best of moods. Being locked in Kaiba Corp with no apparent time of leaving with three very angry old spirits wanting to come in to kill you wasn't the only thing going on. Bakura had said Marie and Joey were finally talking, those three guys could ruin both worlds besides many others, she was stuck dealing with yet another one of herself running around in her own mind, and the fact that the back of her head felt like a screen door flapping wide open in the wind didn't help either. 

"Hey Bill, how long as it been?" Bill casually looked at his watch.

"About…twenty minutes give or take… Jeez is your personal _this_ bad?!" Kaiba glared at him and opened his mouth to snarl at him, but he was cut off.

"Something's wrong…" Bakura thought aloud. That sent a chill down Ann's spine, giving him a quick unsettled glance and flinched at another loud thump. 

"…Yeah…this doesn't smell right." Bill agreed.

"How _does_ this smell?" Ann asked a bit nervously.

"Horrible."

"…What do we do?"

"Well, we might want to get to a safer place…"

"And how do we do that, Bill, when we don't even know where safe is right now." Bill shrugged. There was a pause.

"Shadow Realm?" Bakura suggested. Ann shook her head vigorously.

"No. Remember _last time_?" 

"Oh yeah…" Bill sheepishly grinned. What happened three days ago was enough of a reminder.

"Where in the building can we go?" Ann was looking at Kaiba with increasing worry, the thud on the door was beginning to sound eerily hallow. Panic was starting to settle comfortably in her head, which was in its own a scary thought. Kaiba wasn't look at any of them though, he was off somewhere else in his own skull, but what he was thinking about you couldn't even get a hint of by looking at him. His eyes had glazed over to just a plain creepy blue with no pupils at all and he was just standing there staring at that rich navy blue rug hypnotized. He was somewhere very deep. They wouldn't be getting any help from him for a couple of minutes. Getting frustrated with him, she stalked off up the off escalator and to the elevator door with another annoying bang, but not from the door but from her own fists against the sliding down of the escalator when it so bluntly refused to work.

"We should try the stairs." Bill muttered, making her jump because he was standing right behind her now, and pointed his finger to the doorframe with a pair of stairs shyly sitting there to the left of them. Without another word Ann pushed off the door and started running to the stairs immediately, not caring if Kaiba was going to follow or not. No, she had just about enough waiting and the stairs were looking particularly nice. Kaiba and Bakura finally came up by the time they were on the twentieth step and still climbing but looking over the railing at them.

"Hurry up guys!" They briefly look at each other and started up the stairs, almost falling for the lack of light. That was a bit tiring since it had the best way of tricking you, something about the distance and the dimness was affecting their sight enough to trick the mind into thinking a step was father than were it was located, so they had to take it slow and feel for the right step instead of taking a long painful roll down. That was not on their list to do. 

"Where are we going?" Bill asked Ann, carefully placing a foot quickly to catch up to where Ann was about ten steps ahead of them. Ann didn't feel much like answering him. She wanted to get to Kaiba's office. It had to have a lock on it at least and the keys to any of the rooms. If they had a key for all the doors they could find a way up or down to a back door or something, she didn't care at this point, as long as it was a way out.

"Damn it! Slow down!" Ann realized she was running up now and decided to slow a bit.

"We…NEED…to get the… hell out of here…" She said, realizing she was starving herself of breath she was still running.

"…is she telling you?" 

"No, I just have a bad feeling."

"No arguing with that…" was Bill's response. She was glad he wasn't getting all curious on her for once and decided when she got to that office she'd try to find Calendae and chat a bit more. But for now she would have to get up these forsaken stairs and-

/RUN! /

"Calendae?"

/RUN! RUN! RUN! /

"ANN?!"

"RUN! GOD DAMN IT RUN!" She screamed at the top of lungs using whatever breath she had left. A bang exploded from down stairs and that sudden fueled her legs to start sprinting. There was a small quiet period until a whole roar of footsteps slammed into her eardrums. She knew there would only be one of them coming from the direction, call it intuition or just plain logic if you wish, but she _knew_. Ann knew this, if it was her, she wouldn't wait around until the door came down. So were did that place the others? Another way in of course. A back door? Maybe. Depended from where… On the roof? Could they even do tha- 

            She didn't even have time to scream as she was brought down to the stairs with a slam. An unknown weight came upon her and sent her sliding down the stairs painfully on her back with it pressing on her chest and sending her down. Keeping her back straight somehow under the huge amount of weight she had her eyes screwed shut and her jaw clenched with pain exploding into her spine from the constant bang bang bang of each step. Then all at once it stopped as someone grabbed her shoe and stopped her descent into the dim blackness below and in the moment her eyes flew open to a pair of raging brown eyes that made her own turn wide. It was only a moment until a cloud of whiteness flung into her view as his head turned and did something to stop the grip on her sneaker because she was suddenly sailing down again, but the pressure of his weight was gone and know a frightening laughing was banging in her ears. Or was that her head slamming against each stair? No, it was neither. It was in her mind, that damn screen door was flapping again, it was wide open, and the pain suddenly evaporated. A moments peace greeted her ears until she fluttered her eyes open to watch herself fall down a couple of more steps when her foot finally collided with the railing post and stopped her dead. Then she finally opened her eyes, bright brown and full of…what? Was that gold specks? They weren't her eyes. They were Calendae's. 

            Calendae cracked a smile and laughed an eerie cheerful laugh as she pulled Ann's body to its feet and dusted herself off. Ann watched from about ten stairs up, gawking because she was not in control of her _own_ body now, but now Calendae was using it. She should have known, she _had_ seen it a lot from Yugi and Yami. Why not Calendae and her? Finally looking down at herself she found that she was transparent, almost freaking ghost like. Some kind of screwed up phantom. But she had no time to worry of this. He had to worry about what was going on in real life. Calendae was beaming; a wide grin spread across her cheeks as she stared up at Bakura's other half, who was returning a 'what the hell?' look. 

"_Why_ have you attacked my aibou? Tell me."  It was a bit weird to hear that word spoken out loud. Even weirder to hear it said in a funny tone of voice that didn't even belong to her. It was light and lullibyish, sort of a songbird type of voice, which Ann hadn't realized Calendae spoke like until now. Kaiba stopped dead on the stairs behind

Calendae/ Ann's body with complete surprise covering every corner of his face, making him look so messed up it was more frightening than when he was mad. Bakura's counterpart was definitely surprised, but unshaken.

"Who are you?" Calendae smirked.

"Who am I? Do you even know who you are? Do we even know who _we_ are? There is more to life than just knowing who we are, you know…" Ann felt a bit embarrassed now.

"But enough of this questioning…I know what you want."

"What would that be?"

"My…her life. I'm not going to give it to you, that is a…given? Yes, given. But anyway…you'll have to take it from me first. Bring it…on?" She directed her attention to Ann's phantom presence.

"It _is_ on right?" Ann slapped her forehead in so much embarrassment. This was awful.

/Yes it is thank you every much. / Oh great. Now _she_ was talking like that. Sighing she wanted to turn around to shield herself from such an embarrassment, but she couldn't, she needed to watch.

"Bring it on." Calendae waved Ann's fingers to her palm and back out, calling for an attack from him. Bakura's double, T.R, smirked at her widely.

"I have a better idea…let us play a shadow game." Calendae's mood swung to that curiousness second.

"Ahh…sounds like fun. Which game shall we play?" T.R grin widened, showing some pointed teeth that made Ann's skin, even though it was transparent, crawl with fright. Calendae didn't scare as easy though, she was actually grinning as full pleasure of playing a game.

"A mind game. Are you up to the challenge?" Ann felt Calendae considering it, actually _felt_ it against her skin with a bit of nervousness about it. Calendae just kept up that happy daring grin.

"Sure. Why not?"

BookDragon: "Please review!" ^_^  


	15. The Beginning of Our Little Game

BookDragon: "Hey, thanks for coming…or reading… on with the fic!"

Chapter 15: The Beginning of Our Little Game

"What game are we going to play?" Calendae asked with a voice mockingly polite. Bakura's other, TombRobber, smirked at it and almost looked like laughing. Ann was tense, even in phantom form (strange but true); he could roast them with his gaming skills. He _did_ have centuries of practice you know, and she doubted that he ever lost game (expect against Yami and Yugi of course) and that but their chance of survival very low. Running was the best chance of survival with these guys, not straight out battling them. Calendae was listening to her reasoning.

"Don't worry. The good guys always win."

/ In FICTIONAL places! This is very real Calendae!/ 

"Humph! You have every little faith, but I shall get us through this."

/ Spare me the heroics/ Ann was getting irritated and frightened with a twisting motion in her gut. Calendae pretended or really didn't notice.

            Kaiba on the other hand was looking at them like Ann had completely lost her mind. He was standing there, jaw opened, ( that was the freakiest part of this whole situation. Kaiba's look of being utterly struck dumb.) and blue orbs lit and as wide as possible in the darkened air. Calendae was ignoring his expression and making eye contact with TombRobber, keeping one of Bill's wide 'I really don't know what's going on but I don't care' grins on as he waited an extra moment to see if she was done talking to herself, or so it looked.

"Would a duel suffice?"

"Certainly."

/ I DON'T HAVE MY DECK! /

"Oh, well hang on a moment then…Hey Billyboy!" She looked straight up to the pale face leaning over her head about a staircase up; Bill looked a bit startled by Calendae's sudden appearance as well. Bet he didn't know she could do that.

"Could you please get Ann's deck for me? I sort of need it to get us out of this mess. Please?" It took Bill a moment to wake up from his state of surprise.

"OH!" A few quick hand movements and a jerk of his wrist, a slightly battered looking black box about the size of a poker deck of cards appeared in his hands, which he quickly dropped down to her. Calendae caught it easily and opened the container and pulled out a thick wad of cards and tucked the box into her jeans, creating a large lump that would start bugging her if she ran. Ann was rolling her eyes at this; they wouldn't be running far anyway.

            TombRobber had his deck out by now, and was shuffling them hastily. Calendae copied him, almost chuckling at how serious he looked, and Ann just let her legs shake to let off the nervous energy. Bill was started running down the stairs, probably knowing T.R would sweep them off into a shadow duel, and if you weren't in the cloud, even with magic it would be a hell of a hack job. Bakura had suddenly appeared behind Kaiba and drew him in as the purple/black cloud started to blossom around them, Calendae looking around at it in complete and utter awe grinning widely. Bill just made it before they were all gobbled up in it.

"First trip to the shadow realm I see." TombRobber was mocking them, but Calendae had a funny way of ignoring the obvious if you haven't noticed already, that was Ann's main reason to be so annoyed.

"Yes. It is my first trip, very interesting place…peculiar but interesting." Calendae was infatuated with their surroundings, stamping on the floor, and trying catch a bit of cloud fluff but she was failing. Bill and Bakura were sweatdropping at her. Kaiba and TombRobber looked extremely bored of it already. 

"Are you done?" TombRobber smoothly asked. Calendae's head swung back to him, wide-eyed but still smiling.

"Oh! Yes, yes, sorry…shall we begin?" This is what Ann guessed he wanted to hear. He pulled out five cards off the top of his deck and waited impatiently for Calendae to draw her five cards one at a time, and finally sit down to use the floor. 

/ This is weird. /

"Why?"

/ 'Cause theirs always a dueling station or disk or something…/

"Yes, but can you manage?"

/ Yes, I think I could since I _always_ duel this way. /

"Good then." TombRobber took a card out of his hand and put it face down with a small slap. Calendae blinked at it. After about ten minutes, Bill took out a deck of regular cards and started playing solitaire as Kaiba tapped his foot and yawned loudly, Bakura stretched and looked as if he was going to sleep. Tomb Robber was stiff and unmoving, and so was Calendae until Ann interrupted.

/ It's our turn you know…/

"OH! …What should I do then?" Ann slapped her forehead.

/ You mean to tell me you've never played this game before?!/

"No."

/ We're dead. /

BookDragon: "Sorry this is short guys. I still have to think of what to do in the battle and write a narrative poem about a historical person that my English teacher decided to annoy my class and me with. I don't even have a clue who to write about. "

Bill: "Please review… wish her luck too, she's going to need it!"


	16. BOYFRIEND!

BookDragon: "Hey guys…"

Bill: "Yup another day, another chapter…"

BookDragon: "Please read on!"

Chapter 16: BOYFRIEND!?!?!

/ Okay, he has one card face down in defense mode…what to do…/

"We could always attack."

/Yami does that a lot. I suppose we ought to try it. /

"Okay…how do I attack?"

/Err…you are impossible! Okay… calm down…/

"Are you telling _me_ to calm down?"

/No! I just do it to myself when I get frustrated…can we move on?!/

"What monster?"

/Uhh…what rules are we playing by? /

"I don't know!"

/ Oh yeah this is a piece of cake isn't it? Note the Sarcasm please. /

"Excuse me, but what rules are we playing by?"  Tomb Robber looked up from his nails boredly and yawned widely before his voice echoed.

"We're playing by the rules set in Duelist Kingdom, unless that's too hard."

"Nope that's perfectly fine, thank you." Calendae answered, and then quickly started back at the thin slices of cardboard in her fingers while Ann babbled on about strategies.

/ I never use any, mostly because I only have Bill and my brother to play against. It's easy to kick my bro's ass and I don't play against Bill enough. Sorry to say it but we're screwed. /

"Oh don't say that! You've watched the episodes, and you've seen those strategies, their must be something good in at least one of them you can use…"

/Not really. /

"On what account?" Calendae was now squeezing the cards, nervous for the first time, and watching anxiously at the eyes of each monster, as if it were to help them by telling them the best plan, but they only sat their dead as dead.

/ On account of I don't have any cards like that except some powerful monsters and some magic cards that I don't even know work right./

"Oh dear…"

"Something wrong?" Ann glared at his changed expression, at him grinning widely. It seemed Calendae had switched expressions with him now because now she was wearing a frown. They needed to do something; even Ann was smart enough to figure that out.

/ …er…okay, take the one that says Battle Ox over the top and place him in attack mode, but Waboku face down. /

"Got it. Your turn!"  Bakura drew and placed that card with his fanned out other cards. Then he hastily took the third one from the right and put that down behind his face down monster in defense mode. It was either a magic card or a trap card.

/ Magic? Trap? Magic…Trap… Okay, he could have a trap card there so when we attack something bad will happen to our monster, and then again, he could have played a magic card to power up his defense monster or just to play it to make us think it was a trap card./

"This game is very tricky."

/ No kidding. What risk do you want to take? / 

"I think we should attack."

/ Attack? That's what Yami always does, and then he always gets into a tight spot and finally snatches victory from the jaws of defeat. /

"Your point being?"

/…Oh fine attack. /

"Alright! I will attack your face down card with my battle ox!" Bakura immediately flipped up the face down card.

/Oh damn. /

"I activate Castlewalls!"  Obviously his face down monster's defense went up over 1700 so she could attack it with battle ox again. Okay, that was a no go. 

/We got to end our turn. /

"Oh. I end my turn." Tomb Robber drew another card and played two more face down magic/trap cards and another monster face down.

/Oh great, draw a card. / Calendae nervously drew one card off the top of the deck. 

"Okay now what?"

/Hmm…let's see, we have a Change of Heart, a Maha Vailo, a Book of Secret Arts, and Dark Magician... hopefully my Blue-Eyes will be very close now…/

"How do you know that?"

/ I have two Dark Magicians in my deck, one always stands alone. The other, and I always find this really weird, is always in front or behind my Blue-Eyes White Dragon. /

"That is strange."

/ But never mind that now. Battle Ox is on the field, and I doubt that we can hit the other face down card, so, we should put it in defense mode, if it is attack don't use Waboku, we need to safe that for my Blue-Eyes White Dragon. / 

"If we get it."

/ Yeah, if, but for now, put Change of Heart face down and put Maha Vailo in attack mode then equip Book of Secret Arts to it. /

"I put this card face down and Maha Vailo in attack mode. I equip Book Of Secret Arts to it to raise it's attack from 1550 to 1850 and it's defense from 1400 to 1700, but that's not all, Maha Vailo effect lets it raise it's attack 500 per equip card so it's attack raises again to 2350 and I end my turn." Ann didn't want to attack him with those two face-down cards, they could be anything. If they made a strong defense and attack wall they might have a chance. It was better to wait and see with this guy.

            TombRobber smiled, and drew another card and put it next to one of his face down monster.

/Great. Something else to worry about. / Ann said a bit disheartened.

"Are you afraid of my face down cards? You should be…if only you knew what I had in store for you…"

"I'm shaking with fear." Calendae replied irritated as she drew.

/ Mystic Clown. Why did I ever put that in my deck? /

"I don't know."

/ Hmm…put him face down in defense mode, maybe he'll get cold feet. /

"You got it. I play this in defense mode, face down, and I end my turn…" Calendae shifted, starting to notice the numb feeling spreading through Ann's legs, but kept eye contact with the game. Ann was looking at Bill, still playing solitaire, getting annoyed. She was trying to save their lives. At least he could have some decency.

/Tell Bill to knock it off…or better yet tell him to get Yami or even Kyle out here./

"Oh Billyboy." Bill immediately dropped his cards in a waterfall affect onto the floor and swung his head in Calendae's direction. She kept staring at the Dark Magician carefully, looking every preoccupied.

"Would you be a dear and contract one of our friends?" Ann was starting to twitch at how lady-like she sounded. I was disturbing. Very disturbing.

And by the looks of it, so thought Bill as well.

"…Yes…"

"Thank you." Bill raised an eyebrow but closed his eyes all the small and started a low hum.

"Scared are we?" Bakura mocked, looking at his cards just the same way.

"Scared you can't win a duel without your pathetic group at your side? How sad…" Ann let her hand curl into a ball but resisted the urge to sock him.

"Where are _your_ companions anyway?"

"For me to know and you to wonder about, Madam." He drew again and flipped a card face down next to his other four trap/magic cards. Ann's face turned a slight green at the word Madam, but Calendae took no notice. She just brushed back a brown banana curl carefully and drew a card from Ann's deck. Calendae almost widened her eyes with deep surprise at the Blue-White Dragon looking back at her with large golden letters reading BLUE-EYES WHITE DRAGON.

/ Told yeah. Play him face down, attack with Maha Vailo, and then stall. /

"Stall?"

/SSHHH! Don't talk so loud! We have to wait for Yami and the others to show up.

"Why?"

/ Because we need their help! / 

"…I play this face down and…how is Kakra?" Ann slapped her forehead in dismay. Oh that was wonderful, now she gets to hear about how much Kakra wants to kill her before she dies. Tomb Robber seemed to sense what was going on, probably since Calendae talks aloud and said "Stall" loud enough for a surprise party, but he was good about it, surprisingly, and just decided to play along.

"Oh, she's fine…a bit angry with you, but enjoying her freedom…with me." That sent a splurge of bad images through Ann's mind so fast she wanted desperately to throw up right there. But she couldn't, duh; she was only a phantom of her own mind. Calendae was in control and loving it Ann dared to think.

"That is very good, for both of you. My boyfriend was nervous for the whole week before I had to go on this little adventure, we had no fun in that time he was so concerned, couldn't even eat. I hope he isn't worrying too much about me." Now Ann felt really sick.

/WHAT!?! YOU HAVE A BOYFRIEND! / Calendae ignored her completely, setting Ann in a bit of a nasty mood. Bill's mouth hung open for about two seconds until he tumbled over backward and started laughing his ass off. Bakura, a deep white like the color of snow, still looked very very very ill from what his double had just said, and Kaiba was trying desperately not to get angry, although he was loosing that battle because his face was turning a darker and darker purple by the moment. 

"Bill! I though you were contacting your buddies!"

"I'm already done with that! Jeez you guys always think it takes forever."

"Because you make it take forever." Kaiba growled and Bill quickly sent him a glare but ended up cracking up at how tight Kaiba's lips had turned and how white. Bakura looked completely dead to the world.

"How long will it be?"

"Not long."

"That's good." Calendae smiled and turned back to Tomb Robber.

"What are you planning?" He smirked.

"Wouldn't you like to know…"

"Every much I would." Calendae replied with a greater smirk. But for now they had to wait and see…wait and see…

BookDragon: "Another short one sorry!" ^^;;;

Bill: *sighs* Please review.


	17. Opportunity shows itself

BookDragon: "I'm back…sorry about last week, my brain just wasn't working right."

Bill: "On with the fic!"

Chapter 17: Opportunity shows itself

"How many people have you beaten at this game so far?"

"Thousands upon thousands of souls this world has produced." Tomb Robber gleamed, smiling wickedly, starting to erode what little self confidence Ann had. 

/Oh man, we're _really_ dead. / And for once Calendae did not disagree, instead she turned to Bill.

"Bill?" No boy on the end of that, obviously she wasn't in a happy mood. Bill barely noticed and swung his head in her direction, not quiet focusing on her expression but staring off into deep space, extremely bored and tired of doing nothing for what seemed to be the last thirty minutes. Kaiba was leaning on Bakura slightly snoring, and Bakura's face was still very very very blank from the comment he had made earlier, so he didn't notice Kaiba's extra weight on him.

"Hm?"

"Is t-… How long will it be until they arrive?" Bill took a small glance at his watch and quickly calculated, eyes remaining very blank all the while, and finally made a click to the correct answer.

"Maybe about five minutes, at the least I should say, maybe you-" He never got to finish the rest of his remark, because a blast of cool air hit them all squarely as a hole blew open and two figures climbed in quickly. The first was Ann's/Calendae's double, looking brightened eyed and furious. The other was Marik, keeping a short distance away with a disgruntled look. His cheek had a deep red mark that looked very much like the shape of a person's hand.

"What are you doing?!" Kakra screamed furiously at the back of Tomb Robber's snowed hair.

"They agreed to a duel." He told her in a sly voice, but you could still hear a bit of disgusted annoyance through the mist of it. Kakra's face turned completely red.

"…I wanted to deal with them…_darling." Calendae blinked with some surprise and Ann just stood, mystified by the action occurring._

/…she sounds mad. /

"She is you idiot…" Calendae snapped, watching keenly as the start of what looked to be a quarrel began. Ann took the hint that Calendae didn't want to be pestered right at this very moment; she was anxious as she leaned her head forward a few centimeters.

"Well…_sweetie_…you weren't here to take care of them, so I thought I'd do you a favor…_darling." He snarled back, eyes flickering with some irritation. Ann was starting to figure out that a quarrel was coming up, from the glares and the cool attitudes started to boil._

"I would have been here…_honey_…if you could just wait for one damned minute."

"Well,_ honeybunch,_ you said to go along with out you!"

"That was sarcasm you idiot!" Kakra snapped nastily, as Ann slowly understood where she had seen this before. Mostly from Marie in her short bursts of fights with her boyfriend, this made Ann wince to hear a voice so close to her own bellowing in the same way.

/ I have to get out of here. / Calendae ignored her, staying tense and wide-eyed. She ignored Bill and Bakura's dumbfounded expression and Kaiba's irritated one. She ignored the second portal open and a crowd of people step out, Yugi in the lead. He opened his mouth to ask what was happening when a large smack sounded and he was left shocked.

            TombRobber quickly grabbed his cheek in surprise to Kakra's sudden violent slap to his face and started shouting enraged at her, full lung power and purple in the face with his brown eyes fully a blaze. Kakra's golden orbs burned with the same hurt and anger as she retaliated, but he caught her hand this time, anger that even and threw her away from him. Insults pelted every inch of air space between them and the fight continued for another five minutes without letting up.

/ We should call this a surrender…he's too busy dealing with her to duel us. Let's get the hell out of here. /

"Yes. Let's take the opportunity while it is presented…but first…Billyboy." Bill jumped in surprise and twisted his head so fast that he would probably have a bad case of whiplash later; his big eyes blinked asking 'what' with out really asking.

"Do you have some paper and a pen on you?" Kaiba shoved a small pad and pen right under her nose in response. Surprised, Calendae slowly took both of them, watching him cautiously, and started scribbling out a small note.

_To Kakra & Company_

_Thank you for your surrender. This will be resolved next time we meet. See you soon._

_                                                            ~Calendae & Company_

/Oh that was original. / Ann thought sarcastically.

            Calendae ripped the paper as quietly as she could, even though if she ripped it normal no one would've noticed anyway, the quarrel was so loud, and forced the pen and paper back into Kaiba's grasp and quickly picked all Ann's cards up again and stuffed them hastily in her pocket and left the note. Then she turned on her heel and entered the freshly made black portal, beckoning them to follow quickly, and left the Shadow Realm with Ann talking loudly in her ear.

/ I never thought we would end a duel like this. Jeez, this is lame. /

"I hope it's better than drifting in that realm for all eternity."

/…and there's that…where are we going? /

"Yami, where are we going?" Calendae shouted through the dimness. No one spoke behind them for a moment, and then Yami's voice growled right in Ann's/Calendae's ear venomously.

"What have you done with Ann?" Tea, Joey, Tristan, and Serenity looked at each other nervously as Marie pushed past Yami/Yugi with great speed. Ann founded herself blinking with surprise as Calendae laughed and turned to them, a cocky grin covering her face.

"Wow you catch on fast. Guess they don't call you pharaoh for noth-" Calendae never finished because right then Marie took her by the color and lifted her off the ground with ease, glaring furiously frightened but angry, right into her eyes.

"What have you done with my sister?!" Her voice was at full hate, shrieking mostly. Ann's head was set at full tilt as everyone was suddenly filled with caution. Even Yami took a step away from her.

"Ann?" Calendae asked, more to Ann for information or support, but Marie took it as a question to her instead.

"Yes, you slime ball! What the hell have you done with Ann!?" Calendae looked at Ann's invisible foggy form…frightened? Ann was stunned. Calendae was actually scared; afraid of someone as…well lets not say strong. Ann's mind needed to reboot, this was just too much for her to take, and this was worst that Kakra's actions. To see Marie this angry because she simply wasn't there was just confusing, mind numbing.

"ANN!/ Ann woke up to Calendae's calls and found herself suddenly in Marie's grasp, looking straight into a pair of enraged eyes. Those eyes suddenly lifted with surprise as Ann pulled her death grip off her slowly, a bit scared, and turned to everyone else, then back to Marie's baffled expression.

"…Chill, man… just…chill." It was the only thing she could think of saying. Her fingers had suddenly gone cold as ice at their perplexed faces, all except Bill's, Bakura's, and Kaiba's. Yami reacted faster than the rest of them.

"Who was that?!"

"That was Calendae… where are we?" Yami ignored the question all together.

"Who is she?!"

"My other double…look, it's a long story, where are we?"

"_ANOTHER_ double?!"

"…Yes…for the last time WHERE ARE WE?!"

"You're safe." A voice other than the group but familiar said.

"Ammon?" Bill's voice chimed.

"Indeed. I got your message, what happened?"

"It's a long story; we need to get out of here…where ever we are…"

"Oh, don't you know? We're in the basement of your house, Bill."

"…Oh." A couple of lights suddenly flicked on brightly over their heads, making Ann squint painfully as a figure at the top of the stairs, looking down at them, and after a few blinked found it to be Ammon after all, but with no longer a scent of a warm welcome when he looked straight at Ann.

"I smell an intruder." He said, almost angrily. Ann sighed as the mayhem started again.

"Really? What does an intruder smell like?" Bill asked plainly, making Ann want to laugh.

"You know that's not what a meant." Ammon growled, eyes narrowing on Ann, making her want to squirm with discomfort from his black eyes.

"Alright it's Ann; now knock it off Ammon, Calendae's friendly." He quickly glanced at Bill and pulled away his glare, doing as he was told, but he still had that cautious expression still on his face. Ann was already irritated by Marie's big sister behavior, she didn't need him going all big brotherish to her when he wasn't even related!

"Enough Ammon." She snapped. "I'll explain in the library, Calendae wants to go to the library anyway, and when we all have some food in us first."

"I agree!" Joey, Tristan, Yugi (Yami had step back), and Bill all said in joyous voices all at the same time. The rest of them didn't have a choice.

BookDragon: "Sorry about the lame duel ending…I couldn't think of any clever way to have either of them win…"

Bill: "Please review."


	18. Uproar

BookDragon: *tissues up her nose* "Welcome back…I replaced note with last week's chapter about a week ago…except the thing didn't say it was updated, which sucks and-"

Bill: *laughing his head off*

BookDragon: *glares* "What is so funny?"

Bill: "The fact you have tissues stuffed up your nose."

BookDragon: "If I didn't have a stuffy nose and this horrible cough, then you would be dead right now."

Bill: "Yeah, but if you didn't have a stuffy nose and tissues up there to stop the running then you would have nothing to kill me about."

BookDragon: "…on with the fic…" 

Chapter 18: Uproar

"So you say you're here to help us?" Calendae, walking about in a heavy blanket provided by Bill, along with the roof over their heads, the chairs they sat on, the hot chocolate that swam hotly into their lips from his mugs, and the many books Ammon kept looking over calmly between the huge shelves; they all sat huddled against the fire place in Bill's library, where she walked. 

"If you wish to think so, then I am, if not, then I can't."

"What kind of riddle is that?" Bill asked, confusion showing itself in the wrinkles of his brow. Yami shifted under his blanket toward Calendae, keeping his mug raised to his lips and his vision clear to her face. Yugi watched him nervously, scratching the back of his head, as Bakura rubbed his hands together and put them close to the fire, where Joey and Tristan were busy roasting marshmallows, and paid attention to both her movements and Kaiba pacing around the room, irritated, probably because his brother was somewhere out of his site. Kyle and Brian had joined them.

            It was an uproar when they had first stepped foot on the main floor out of the basement, all three of the boys, Kyle, Mokuba, and Brian had been furious with them for leaving them in the dark so long and had been anxious for some soft of sign that everything went well or- well, they were fine anyway.

            So they sat on the edge of their wooden chairs, interested in what Calendae had to say, as Ann fidgeted in her own chair, trying to warm her numb fingers without having to get up and approach the fire at all. Mokuba shortly returned with a huge novel that made his legs shake with the sure weight of it. His legs stopped buckling when Ammon lifted it easily from his arms and put a blanket around him, that apparently came out of no where; Mokuba smiled and returned to his brother's side. Kaiba's face finally relaxed.

"It is no riddle." Calendae said, gazing into the fire calmly, swirling the liquid in her mug like Ann when she was thinking hard. Ann stopped swirling hers when Calendae started.

"She means that if you want her help she'll give it to you, if you decline then she'll be off." Ann replied to Bill's bewilderment, making the lines disappear from his forehead in understanding and drained the last of his espresso (that he was still quiet fond of) and reached for the machine to brew another.

"Yes, you are correct Ann, but I can only help a little, since I am entitled to do that much. But I can't do anything big."

"What do you mean by big?" Yugi asked her, as polite as ever. Calendae sighed.

"I can't do anything that takes a lot of power, like replacing Kakra back into her dungeon, defeat any of your enemies, such as your twin and Marik, and anything else you can think of that would be to great use. That is beyond my self."

"Well that bites." Kyle said bitterly, and pulled out the bag of bugles he had found earlier in Bill's walk in pantry, all the way in the back, where no one had gone for who knows how long. Kyle could only glance at the expiration date when Tristan and Joey where very near to him and tried to take the bag away to have some, but Kyle resisted and caused an uproar among the three of them. Everyone sweatdropped. They rolled and rolled and rolled about, no matter how long any of the others called to them to stop, and it all finally ceased when someone landed on the bag and swashed it. Then they froze.

"YOU CRUSHED THEM!" Joey shouted at Tristan.

"DON'T LOOK AT ME! IT WASN'T MY FAULT YOU PUSHED ME INTO THEM!"

"WHAT! IF KYLE HADN'T SHOVED ME…!"

"Oh now it's my fault is it?!" Kyle boomed, causing the other two to howl at them and more yelling, and they yelled like that for another five minutes, their voices starting to give when Bill grabbed the flattened bag and took a long at the date.

"Uh guys, these are six months expired."

"SHUT UP!" The three boys shouted at him, leaving him to calmly walk back to his seat, fold his hands, and wait for them to loose their voices.

"Three quarreling dogs fighting over a rotting bone, pathetic." Kaiba muttered aloud enough to be turned upon by Joey, who lunged at him and succeed in it because Tristan was too busy dealing with Kyle. Another huge dust cloud swirled and Joey's mad grunts and Kaiba's calm but deep breaths with the thumbs of fists rang out as everyone stood, dumbstruck.

"Whoa. He actually got him…" Brian breathed, in a bit of awe that they were finally beating the shit out each other. Mokuba was horrified, but still rooting on his brother through the clouded haze. It didn't get far when the noise disturbed Ammon. He raised his head from the crisp paper, a bitter expression of his face as his eyes turned to the cloud. He then walked raggedly to the cloud, looking like Kaiba when he gets angry enough, that heat of rage in his eyes, as he placed to fists into the cloud and brought out two very dirt covered figures. Joey had two black eyes and a bloody lip with his glare at both Kaiba and Ammon. Kaiba's only injury was his nose was bleeding, probably from being taken by surprise the moment Joey made it to his target, the first swing Ann guessed, but he showed the same bitterness toward Joey and Ammon, probably being hung by his collar. They were all in a state of agitation.

"You…IDIOTS!" Kaiba was going to open his mouth to coolly protest but closed it when Ammon's enflamed eyes turned to him.

"DON'T INTERUPT ME!" He growled, leaving everyone else to stay silent. Ammon lowered his tone from a bellow to an enraged whisper.

"How, may I ask you wise men, can I learn how to end our troubles by looking through theses hundreds of hundreds of books, with you two…_fighting like a couple of little girls…disturb my long work?" They were silent._

"ANSWER ME!" He shook them both by their collars, beyond a little shake but more like an earthquake. They both kept their mouths claimed tight, pressure against each set of jaws was unseeable, but still there. Ammon took a long breath of air and glowed worse.

"No _ideas_? Hmmm…maybe if I _punish you? Yes, that's right. I could make your lives a living hell if you push me far enough. Will I do it now?!"_

"No, I believe in warns and second chances…so that is why I'm not going to hurt you _today_… but if you push me far enough I __will__ do it…consider this the first warning…your _last_ warning." He dropped/shoved the two away from him and turned to everyone, purple-faced and eyes so red that Ann was surprised they didn't burst into flames. 

"WHAT ARE YOU ALL STARING AT?!?!" Everyone jumped at his sudden shout, everyone but Yami and Calendae, which both took a step toward him with a calm frowning glace.

"Calm down, Ammon." Yami tried to comfort him by placing a hand on his shoulder, but Ammon swept it away angrily, and darted from Yami to Calendae almost in disbelief.

And before anyone can say anything else, he bats a whole pile of books off the table so suddenly Ann jumps with shock as he tramps out of the room and slams the door. Calendae shook her head slowly.

"He was always so angry." Yami looked at her curiously but didn't say anything to her remark and turned to his friends.

"Is everyone alright?" Everyone was a bit shaken up, even Kaiba showed a hint of surprise, but Bill looked the most aghast. His face had completely drained off all color and his eyes were gazed, clouded over enough for Ann to know that he was thinking very hard in somewhere very deep inside his mind, either processing what just happened or talking to Ammon. She had to admit, getting angry when someone was being very loud and irritating when you're trying to concentrate can being out the worst of people, but not that bad. Her heart was racing wildly still and when a hand placed itself upon her shoulder she jumped and spun around so fast it made Calendae remover her hand with a start.

"Easy…Don't be on edge so much…" Ann didn't reply to her remark, nor did she smile; she just stood there, trying to calm down. Calendae seemed to relate with this heart pounding; why wouldn't she?

"Don't worry about Ammon, he doesn't get angry that much, so it builds, until it needs to burst. Mr. Kaiba and Mr. Wheeler were just the ones that got it dealt out on…but never fear; he is a better at teaching than handing out punishments…you will see…" That woke Ann up, and sent the memory of a giant griffin roaring and made her shiver. Then the memories of his so called "lessons" were supposed to start.

"Wait. He's going to teach…me?" Calendae smiled and nodded. Ann sighed with despair.

"But he hates me." Calendae's forehead suddenly exploded into a thousand wrinkles of bewilderment.

"How do you interprat that?" Ann scratched her arm nervously and eyed Bill, still standing with no one at home, and the others were talking to each other, something about how stupid it is to argue about food with a whole walk in pantry of it, not to mention the huge ice room. Calendae caught her drift.

"You don't want the others to know, even though they freely show who they hate and when." She nodded toward Joey and Kaiba, making Ann sigh deeper.

"Yes, I know. I'm just…"

"You like Ammon." Ann's head bolted up and looked straight at her, opening her mouth to protest, but Calendae placed her hand over her lips lightly and hushed her.

"It is true, don't deny it, you only react when you feel it is necessary. Such as if you walked alone and a group was conspiring to hurt one of your friends you wouldn't confront those head on. All because you feel that you should not become mad so easily for a small mistake you made from being so young. You shouldn't punish yourself; you should take whatever wisdom you learned from that moment and move on."

"First, that would be stupid to confront them head on, courageous I know, but every stupid in wit. Second, I try to leave it behind, but it doubles back to me painfully, digging deeper. Don't tell me what I should or should not do. Even though you made me, I'm still not you." Calendae's left eye twitched with what Ann knew as a sudden wave of boiling anger, but Calendae let out a deep breath and took her hand off of her shoulder, with some effort not to open her mouth.

"It appears…you are correct…however…if you can't express your rage then it will swallow you…these tests he will give you will be hard if you can't figure away to vent…now I will go to my room." Calendae turned heel and briskly walk out of the room and quietly clicked the door shut. Ann shook her head and sighed, and looked up again to find everyone staring at her.

"What are you all-" she didn't finish for it was what Ammon had only said moments ago before making the papery mess under her feet, so she bit back her tongue.

"I'm going to find a book to read…please don't disturb me unless it is important." Ann walked away, and, without looking, grabbed a random book off the shelf she randomly walked by and started toward a chair in the far corner, where she flipped open the book and started to read a random line. A few of them watched her flip a few pages and knew she was silently telling them to go away, so Yugi, Brian, Kyle, Yami, and Tea took the warning and left. Kaiba didn't give a shit how she felt but left with his brother since his brother always followed him everywhere, Joey and Tristan stayed and kept roasting marshmallows and taking about why it was stupid to attack Kaiba and Joey nursed his eyes. Bill still stood motionless, and Bakura just watched him, unwavering from his position, just keeping an eye on him. Ann was aware that he was doing so, and felt a little grateful, and also wished to know if he could help him or not, and if so would he.

He would help if it was in his power, she decided  as her answer an half hour later, and knew that Bill was going through something every difficult that Ann could not place. And if she couldn't place it, she decided further, then she shouldn't meddle with it, and so she flipped the page of her book and tried to drown herself in the words, until she felt she could think. The page turned dimmer and dimmer, even though the light above her head stayed at his brightest, until her heavy eyelids closed softly. She plunged into the darkness of sleep. 

BookDragon: "Please review."


	19. Master William

BookDragon: "I'm updating!"

Bill: "Please read! She doesn't own Yu-Gi-oh!"

Chapter 19: Master William

            Ann sat on the rust old couch quietly, reading something about hair gel when she heard something loud coming down the stairs. She glanced up at Joey, snickering loudly; she blinked and opened her mouth.

"What have you done know?" Joey looked at her quickly, his eyes almost watering. He pointed to the stairs slowly. Ann looked over to the stairs and dropped the magazine loudly on the ground in total shock, surprise, but most of all humor. There on the last wooden step stood the fluffiest pinkest cartoon rabbit about as tall as a regular sized man. Its big angry blue eyes looked at Joey totally annoyed and angry.

"Shut up dog." Seto's voice rang out. Ann's eyes widened.

"Seto? What the heck did you do?!" His eyes suddenly dulled very annoyed.

"I walked in on Bill's…seminar…And he turned me into THIS for a day…" Joey finally lost it and fell to the ground laughing uncontrollability. Kaiba's eyes filled with rage as he almost pounced on Joey ready to kill him when someone unexpected entered the room.

"FUNNY BUNNY!" Ann's eyes shot to the door in the far left of the small cabin room onto Pegasus, his eyes with big hearts in them. Seto's eyes widened.

"NNNOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Seto started running for his life as Pegasus started chasing him in circles around the room gasping the same words every few minutes.

"Must…hug…funny bunny!" Seto kept running around the room quickly yelling.

"GET AWAY FROM ME!" Pegasus finally tried to lunge at him, but his current problem saved him. He jumped nimbly over his snow-white head and landed about five feet behind him, or where Pegasus landed when he couldn't slow down in tine and crashed straight into a wall. This gave the extremely ruffled animal once known as the CEO of Kaiba Corp a few good moments of escape, or would have if Joey hadn't roped his arms around his waist and weighted him down, and killed any sense of escape he had.

"GET OFF ME WHEELER!!!" He cried out desperately, immediately clawing at his arms with those huge furry mitts, his navy orbs pouncing every few seconds to the stirring pink suit in the corner. Using one of his new huge furry feet he kicked the constricting teen blonde straight in the stomach, and broke his hold instantly, giving Kaiba one pure moment of hope. Then Pegasus's arms went over his eyes and pressed into his chest as they tightened against him. Kaiba shouted in agony and thrashed in Pegasus's huggy bind with desperation. Ann was left, jaw flapping open, on the side lines of this whole battle, when Calendae suddenly seemed to appear right next to her. She took one look at Ann, then to the huge floppy eared animal and Kaiba's shrieking voice, then back to Ann again in a sort of horrific awe.

"So this is what you dream about?" Ann's attention was averted from the scene in front of her to the wise double with deep bewilderment set in her brown orbs. Calendae's

eyebrows lifted as her face turned to blankness and just looked at her a moment, as if to make sure, before she spike against.

"Yes, this is a dream; Ann. Mokuba has been trying to wake you for the past five minutes. It seems urgent…whatever it is…so you must wake up." Ann Blink out of existence as a voice struck Ann's ears painfully.

"WAKE THE HELL UP!"

            Ann's eyes flew open and immediately grabbed the pair of arms shaking her with such force that they trembled a moment, and quickly attempted to recoil from her grip, but were failing. A fluttering bang awoke her ears to their full working nature, unlike her eyes. Blinking a few moments, her eyes finally adjusted after seconds of her brains pleads to the light and saw a pale face with a set of blue frightened orbs.

"Kaiba…?"

"No, NO! It's me…Mokuba!" She blinked another sliced moment away and took the last bits of sleep away from her eyes and saw the midnight locks of messy hair and looked him directly in the eyes.  Her grip gave and he pulled himself free, no longer shaking at all, but looking at her with a rare glint in his eyes. Where had she seen that before?

"What's wrong?"

"My brother is missing." Ann groaned, noting a throbbing in her back and the book tumbled on the floor at Mokuba's shoes. She had slept in the chair all night with the novel she had been reading, now in the floor due to the vague small struggle.

"Hm…missing?"

"YES!" Mokuba's shout made her jump from groggy to fully awake. She stood up quickly, not letting her legs buckle for too long, as she walked to the door.

"…Why are you telling me this?" Ann asked. Mokuba, following as usual, stopped, causing in affect to the stop and listen.

"Because, Yugi and Tea said you would help." Ann couldn't argue with this. She just looked into his frowning eyes and knew what it felt like to find a part of one's family gone without a trance. Mokuba must have felt that wakened dark fear a hundred times stronger than Ann could because Seto Kaiba was the lost of his family, all he had left.

Ann could not deny him her help knowing that.

"Where are the others?" She asked as she turned away and started again to the door. It wasn't hard to sense that Mokuba was now smiling behind her, of what he could smile about anyway.

"Mai, Marie, and Serenity are out shopping and beyond reach, Tristan and Joey are missing too, Bill is at school, Ammon is with him, Brian and Kyle are with Yugi and Tea. They are going to met me at Kaiba Corp in two hours…of course only if someone went with me.: Ann guessed immediately what happened.  They thought him too young to venture out and look for his brother, so they told him to stay here with a promise that if he found someone of an older age that could not be disturbed to go with him to Kaiba Corp. If not, then they would do it alone. Being the sibling of the lost, Mokuba just couldn't let that happen; he needed to look for his brother. Ann just happened to be the answer to his riddle.

She smirked at him, eyes glinting with a deep understanding, but laughing all the same.

"Alright, but first we need to get Bill and Ammon with us…and then we can look for your brother…just one question."

"Yes?"

"How are we getting there?" She glanced behind her quick enough to see a smirk, probably inherited from his brother, spread on his face from ear to ear. It was pretty scary, him looking like an evil lawn gnome for that few moments; made Ann wonder if Mokuba was really more than just the tag-a-long little brother she had viewed him as.

"I have my resources…" This could be every educational, Ann thought to herself grimly, but didn't look back.

            After changing into some different clothes with the ten minutes Mokuba allowed her, she walked out the front door which locked on its own as soon as the knob ticked shut, startling her a bit but not as much as the limo sitting in Bill's make shift driveway.

The tinted windows in the back gleamed in the sun light, until one rolled down swiftly and Mokuba's familiar mess of hair was visible.

"Hurry up!" His voice was more polite than demanding, why in fact; Ann took no offence in his urgency. She hastily trudged through the icy mounds of snow in the ratty old black sneakers with no notice of the cold, opened the door with a hesitant jerk, and slide swiftly into the seat and pulled the door shut with a snap of her arm. The vehicle without delay jolted forward and slid easily in the frost and started its tricky journey down the side of the mountain. But she didn't notice this very much. Ann was impressed by the inside of the car.

            She had never been in a limo before, and she was painfully aware that her mouth was open. It was a rectangular chamber with leather seats made into the sides of it, including the three doors, stopping in a few places. Small places contained cup holders, probably for the drinks in the mini compartment (Ann was 95% sure they weren't kiddy drinks of any sort…most likely the kind that would get one 'piss drunk' after a few gulps.), the TV in the left corner, and the computer screens to the right of her in full blast of light, making her eyes squint. The interior was all carpeted with velvet, excluding the seats, including the floor. Mokuba, all the while in her shocked expression, was beaming at her with headphones stuck to each of his ears.

"Do you like it?" Ann just stared at him.

"…I'll take that as a yes."

"W-where the HELL did you get this from?!" Ann choked out, touching the side of the car wonderingly, trying to make sure this was no dream.

"It's Seto's. He never uses it because he thinks it's too 'classy'…I called a driver to take us, hopefully he wouldn't be too mad."

"Hopefully…how close are we to the school?"

"About ten minutes away, why?" Ann shifted uncomfortably. Yes, it was partly the car, but it was mostly about Ammon storming out of the room, and the nightmare of being _taught_ by him was scary. Let's face it, she didn't like Ammon, and he equally didn't like her. End of story. Bill won't understand even if she could tell him. Scratch could, try _would_. She never would. I would be one of those things one takes to the grave; something to add to that huge box of things deep in her mind. 

"I haven't thought of an excuse to get him out yet, for the 'officials'." She lied to him. He took it as the truth so fast she felt guilty seconds after her lie.

"Oh, well, let's think of something."

"Like what?" Mokuba scratched his head, ruffling his hair a bit (not that it mattered), in deep thought for a few moments.

"His grandmother is ill?" Ann shook her head.

"That sounds really corny… maybe the police need to take him in." Mokuba raised his eyebrows.

"From two adolescences? You've got to be kidding me…how about unavoidable business?"

"From us?" Mokuba thought a few moments again and finally snapped his fingers with an idea.

"How about the famous Seto Kaiba sent his brother instead of his own messengers, the business being so secret he could only trust his brother, this business being so important, no _vital, that Bill be taken out at once." Ann paused a moment, checking the explanation out for leaks, and finally gave him a huge smirk in response._

"It's clever, but you can't tell him straight out. Tell him, or her, that it's a secret and your brother has something to do with it. Let them needle you with a few questions and finally pretend to give in and tell them that he is so important to this 'business' that if Bill doesn't come it will have grim consequences."

/Clever of you. / Calendae's sudden remark set Ann's heart beat up a few notches and visible to her face because Mokuba's face dropped.

"Are you alright?" Ann ignored him a moment.

"DON'T DO THAT!" She growled. Mokuba flinched at her growl and looked quickly sad. A tickly feeling wriggled in the back of her mind from Calendae to that out burst.

/You wouldn't expect me to be left out on this sudden turn of advents would you? /

"Yes, I would- sorry Mokuba. Calendae just beeped in. - now, why don't you warn me that you're coming before I leave the house?"

/Because, what fun would it be if I didn't get to do such things? / Ann gritted her teeth, fiercely annoyed. Calendae laughed boomingly in her ear as response. 

/Loosen up a bit, it's only a game. /

"An irritating one."

/Oh…don't get sassy with me. / She replied teasingly.

"Sassy? You sound like my grandmother!" She laughed at Calendae's sudden annoyed response and so the game went between them, Mokuba looking confused because he was only getting one side of the conversation, until they stopped at the front of the building. Ann, after finding the door handle, opened the exit and let Mokuba out (only because they decided if someone should see them get out it would look like she was only a servant.) He placed the sternest expression on his face and tried to walk as innocently into the building. Ann fought back some laughter and tried to walk as professionally as she could. She opened the door for him and walked calmly down the blue locker filled hall, to the office to the left (where she again opened the door) and walked inside. 

            Mokuba made immediate eye-contact with the small women behind the desk, probably a secretary by her blood-red nail polished nails and deep rimed glasses, and walked up to the desk.

"Excuse me Miss," he said in a new cutie tone of voice, "You wouldn't happen to know where Master William is?" Ann's eyebrows scrunched in confusion. Master William? What the hell? The women looked at him with the same look, but not for the same reason.

"And on what account would you need to see him during classes, Mr…?"

"Mokuba Kaiba, and my brother needs to see him for some unavoidable business." The lady's eyebrows went up higher on her forehead. Ann fought the urge to shift, her nervous energy starting to course through her.

"What, Mr. Kaiba, kind of business would he been needed for?" Ah. She has taken the bait.

"That's confidential, it's imperative that he leaves today."

"You'd have to talk to the principal…"

"Alright." He turned to Ann unexpectedly.

"Would you find the principal and Master William now please?" He asked in a sweet voice. Ann swallowed her surprise and dully nodded, then left the office at a hasty pace. After a good ten feet down the hall she turned into a corridor she hoped was the right way and ran into a brightly lit wall of crowded people, not unexpectedly from the amount of noise they had made before. The blue shirts and pants the boys wore looked nice, but the pink shirts and navy skirts made Ann quickly shudder, thankful that she did not attend. Through the vivid beams of sunlight she could see some laughing expressions, some totally blank, and some angry. 

Everyone was carrying an array of different books in their arms, the girls holding them to their chests and most boys letting them flap at their hips, trying to look cool. She got a few confused looks from them, making her increasingly nervous because they looked to be at least a year older than her. She hoped the look was for her cloths, which her nothing like the female uniforms; a jet black sweater with blue jeans and her raggy sneakers. 

Looking at them cautiously, she snaked a way through the crowd (away from them) and started to look for Bill among this mess of teenagers, all much older than her. Only a few looks strayed to her, and she was thankful for that; her old sense of disappearing in the crowd seemed to be working for her, as usual. As long as she never made direct eye contact with anyone, she'd be safe. That was a growing problem though; having to look all about was getting more and more tense work.       

Finally after about ten minutes of a low class hell in Ann's text book of school experiences, a bell rang and the numbers of the students thinned out quickly. Leaving the hallway in an every opposite way she had found it; deserted. She sighed with relief and suddenly struck a grin, for down the hall was Bill stuffing a load of books in a narrow locker without much success. She ran up to him as fast as possible.

"BILL!" His head swung up in a flinch of surprise, and his eyes quickly strayed to her, and a look of shock soon after.

"What are you _doing_ here?! He whispered at her furiously. Ann straightened up with a look of complete haughtiness.

"Mokuba Kaiba says he is in need of you for some very important work, and-"

"Master William?!" Ann stopped at the professional voice coming from around the corner baffled, and watched the color soon drain from Bill's face as he turned to her suddenly, eyes wide with fear.

"Quick! Get in my locker!"

"What-"

"No time!" Bill hastily shoved Ann into the narrow space and slammed the blue door, leaving Ann in a very narrow and dark place, spare three narrow beams of light coming in. That and the most horrible smell she had ever had to smell in her life.

"There you are!" The voice from before inquired with a delighted tone, the clicking footsteps stopped.

"Hello, nice to see you on such a wonderful morning." Bill's voice came in. Ann fidgeted in the locker until she could see out one of the slits. A portly man wearing a suit and shiny black shoes laughed with a sort of below as Bill sheepishly grinned at him. Ann knew this had to be the principal that was her intuition said. Unfortunately it also said that smell was body odor.

"Master William," Bill slightly shifted his feet to hide the flinch and Ann swallowed a chuckle. "I haven't seen you all week! If I hadn't known better I'd say you were trying to avoid me!" Bill shifted a bit more.

"Er…What ever gave you that idea?" The principal laughed and nudged him in the shoulder, harder than it looked, because Bill started to rub his arm as he kept talking.

"It is wonderful that you decided to attend my school instead of those private institutions, I'm still honored by your decision, that and-" He was interrupted by the call of another adult male voice that sounded very close to Mr. Sawyer's back home, making Ann jump and clatter a bit. The principal didn't notice the noise but turned to the tall teacher thumbing a large pole down the hall with a laugh.

"Mr. Grant! What a surprise! Hopefully you aren't angry with me for detaining one of your pupils…"

"No, no of course not!" Mr. Grant replied with a grin. "It's just that he left his gym shirt in his stall and I thought-" Some kid came running around the corner so fast that Mr. Grant, out of some bizarre reflex or just because he wanted to, turned the pole horizontal and struck the kid in mid-run, flipping him over and onto the ground with a bang, making them all wince. For a moment no one spoke, and then finally the principal cleared his throat.

"Um, Mr. Grant, I don't think the student body will be much of a body if you keep doing that." The teacher looked at his stick, and then to the kid on the floor, and then back to the old chubby man sheepishly.

"Oh, right, um. Here." He dumped a shirt into Bill's hands and quickly sent off to help the poor kid up and off to what she suspected to be the nurse's office. Oh dear. What she was smelling were actually the rest of Bill's gym outfit. How horrific.

"I hope he isn't hall monitor." He whispered to Bill with a wink and started to laugh again. Ann squirmed in the confined space anxiously, accidentally kicking the metal a bit too loud.

"What was that?" Bill immediately elbowed the locker loudly and leaned on it as casually as he could.

"What?"

"Didn't you hear it?" Bill faked a baffled look.

"Hear what?"

"That _sound_…" Bill deepened his look.

"I think you're hearing things…wait a minute, I think that was the speaker." Bill replied.

"Speaker? That's wasn't the speaker-" Suddenly a blipping noise erupted the conversation.

"Will the principal please report to the office with William? That will be all." It bleeped out again loudly. Saved by the bell.

"Oh! What _now?_ Come on William…"

"I will in a minute, go on with out me, I meet you there." 

"Well don't dilly-dally…"

"I won't." Some footsteps clicked and clanked down the hall until it was so quiet she couldn't hear them anymore. Then the locker door she was leaning on flew open and Ann poured out of it and onto the floor with a pair of socks on her face. She batted them away quickly.

"Don't you ever _wash_ your gym clothes?! JEEZ!" Bill gave her a sour look.

"Come on, I know this office trip has something to do with you…"

BookDragon: "Please Review!"


	20. Short Explanation

BookDragon: *surprised* "I _never_ thought this would go so long…"

Bill: "Well, it's a sequel, what do ya think?!"

BookDragon: *Shrugs*

Chapter 20: Short Explanation

"Some kind of rescue mission huh?"

"Yup." Mokuba replied, watching Bill cautiously, due to the fact that he was playing with all the gadgets the vehicle had. That and Ammon's voice would buzz up unexpectedly at any and most moments, scaring the shit out of Ann every time. 

"Glad you pulled me out then…that is if this is necessary." Ann flinched as Ammon switched over again, ignoring Mokuba's sudden glance at her she turned back to her friend's body.

"…What do you mean?" Ammon sighed in an annoyed fashion, causing her to be irritated, because in Ann's mind Ammon thought she was some damsel in distress that needed looking after and he was annoyed to do this. Ann, hating the 'fairytale save the girl' thought patterns she assumed to be buzzing in half of Bill's skull decided plainly that she wasn't fond of him for this reason. Plain and simple.

"What if our friends are simply out shopping? I mean, pulling Bill out of his education for something this simple would be idiotic." 

"Hey! Don't look at me like that!" Ann responded to Ammon's accusing look with a growl, "It wasn't my idea! Mokuba said he was missing, as in GONE."

"And he IS!" Mokuba yelled, calming the quarrel that had started, and causing the two teens to look at him.

"My brother doesn't leave without telling me! He's my brother for god's sake! He would leave a note! Tell me what's going on! Because he cares!" Sort of soap-opera-ish in Ann's mind but affective all the same. Ammon bit back Bill's lip and subsided. Bill blinked his eyes with a system's check, and carefully placed a hand on his shoulder.

"We will find your brother, Mokuba. I'm just afraid what he'll do to us when we do." Obviously this was humor…what's it? Better not to dwell on the saying. 

            The limo stopped with a powerful jolt, jerking everyone forward a bit and unsettling their breathing a bit. A moment was spared to regain their barings with several deep pants.

"…What the _hell_ was that?!" Ammon's voice popped up out of Bill's mouth.  Much like a cork from a too shaken wine bottle, having the same affect on Ann's ear drums. While grasping them, her eyes darted from one to the other of her comrades and finally to the blackened glass window lowering in the front of the car. A familiar blonde head of spiked locks emerged with a tanned face with a smirk displayed to its fullest and a pair of black sun glasses. Everyone's mouths dropped. A hand was removed from the steering wheel and calmly removed the sunglasses to expose a pair of very purple looking eyes.

"Just thought it would be polite to inform you that you will not be billed, Mr. Kaiba." Nope, no reaction from the passengers of the vehicle. They were beyond dumb stricken.

"This is on the house, from Miss Kakra. So I would advise you to sit back, and enjoy the ride…" Suddenly his smirk intensified to reveal the most sickening set of bright white pointed teeth.

"For your sake." 

And with that the window wound up much faster than before, closing before Bill could get a good hold on the glass.

"DAMN!" Bill shouted through gritted teeth, shoving himself into the seat beyond pissed off.

"How the hell did he get there?!" 

"My guess would be when we got out to get you, Bill. The driver mustn't have had a chance."

"That or he's just hog tied on the side of the road." Bill shook his head.

"No, probably stupidity with a wonderful trip to the shadow realm, DAMN IT! How the hell did I fall for this?!" Ann shrugged. Hey, she had no suspicion that they had been set up. 

"Hmm, no time to wonder about that, we need a plan." Mokuba commented, looking as if he was going to be sick.

"Plan…anyone got any ideas?" Bill and Ann didn't say anything.

"Oh this is wonderful. You try to save Kaiba and we get napped. Typical." Ammon's voice sprung up. Ann was stressed and not paying attention to keeping her temper in tact.

"I don't have time for insults, Captain Asshole, so shut up and let me think." Bill's expression changed for the worst, but Ann wasn't gonna let Ammon get another word in; she looked at Mokuba.

"Do you have a car phone in here?" Mokuba nodded and flipped the arm rest over to expose a telephone. That was something you didn't see everyday. Ann grabbed it and was going to do some number punching when she found no tone. The phone was dead.

"Shit! The phone's disconnected!"

"Well of course it is! They're not that stupid!" She glared at Ammon's face, but stayed silent. Everyone was silent a moment.

"I think I got a cell phone though." Bill said, and dug through his pockets quickly. After a few hopeful moments no phone emerged.

"No phone. Sorry guys."

"Do you have anything else in your pockets?!" Mokuba asked. Bill fished through his pockets again and some how he pulled out a beeper.

"What the hell are you doing with a beeper?" Ann asked in a high voice, and then covered her mouth quickly, feeling foolish because Marik was just on the other side of the glass.

"Long story, besides it's no good without a power source." Bill replied mournfully, sending a sickening lurch through her stomach. This was bad. Sure, Ann knew it was only a matter of time before they got her to she got them. Too bad she hadn't learned any of that magic. They were basically sitting ducks.

"Hang on," Mokuba piped up a moment later. 

"I've got an idea."

BookDragon: "All for now. I've got to think of the idea…lol. 

Bill: "Please review!" *J*


	21. “I saw it in a movie once”

BookDragon: "Hey, another chapter, another week."

Bill: "She doesn't own Yugioh and never will I'm afraid."

BookDragon: "On with the fic."

Chapter 21: "I saw it in a movie once."

"Alright, strip that wire."

" No, not the yellow one, the blue one."

"What one?"

"The blue one!"

            Ann glanced at the guts of the phone cord cautiously and hastily claimed her eyes shut as she bit off the plastic covering of the small blue wire, exposing some saliva covered copper. She spit out the plastic and handed the wire out. Mokuba grimaced and slowly took it from her out stretched hand and started to look at the inside of what use to be Bill's beeper, now disassembled, and tried to find which wire to put where. Bill peered into the insides with an ill look on his face at Mokuba gingerly placed his fingers on the exposed wet copper and wrapped it around.

"GROSS! You practically coated it!" Ann blushed, but didn't say anything. Mokuba hastily finished up with the connection and immediately wiped his fingers on his jeans and waited for another wire.

"Are you sure this is gonna work?" Bill asked him, watching his stressed face as he looked for one of the other wires, his tongue between his teeth as he started to apply the next sticky wire with some disgust.

"Look, I saw it in a movie once. They connected a cell phone and a regular phone by taking it apart and connecting the yellows wires, red wires, and blue wires together. They got a dial tone and everything." Bill's apprehensive look didn't change.

"One, this is a beeper, not a phone receiver. Two, This isn't a movie, Mokuba." Mokuba didn't saw anything for a moment, only attached the second slimy wire, and then looked at him straight in the face with the little spare time they had.

"Maybe not, but this is a cartoon. Isn't it?"

~          ~          ~

"DAMN IT!" Brain kicked the nearest trash can furiously and watched it tip over and crash into the pavement of the narrow alley. Kyle gave him a brief glare, but thinking of the mess he was causing them to clean up, then found, for the first time in his life, he was too tired to argue with him.

            They had been walking since about eight this morning and with the sun about seventy degrees in the sky, knew they had been walking for at least six hours. His feet felt like hot coals and where throbbing quiet badly, as were probably Brian's, but he wasn't sure. Brian _did_ run cross-country after all.

"We've looked practically ever where in this place! They must have got them." This was looking dire. The three were still missing, they hadn't heard from Mokuba yet, and, to make matters worse, it seemed they were lost.

"If we had just decided to take a map…" And for the fourth time Kyle whacked Brian in the shoulder, and got hit back.

"Look! It's not my fault! I _thought you knew where you were going, you __were leading after all."_

"Shut up."

"After all, it was you who said 'Hey Kyle! Follow me!'"

"Shut up!"

"This is all your-" Kyle's voice was muffled suddenly under Brian's hand. Blinking a moment, he regained his common sense and threw off Brian's hand glaring bolts at him. He opened his mouth to argue but got a fierce look from Brian, as he held his finger to his lips. With the new sound of silence a distinct crunching sound of sneakers on pavement reached his ears like a fire cracker in his ear. Both boys remained motionless, listening very hard for the footsteps to pick which direction they were coming from, to tell them if it were friend or foe. When they found it as only one pair of footsteps they assumed it was enemy.

            Brian signaled Kyle to duck behind the dumpster on the left while he hid behind the one to the right. Already the battle tactic was in both of their minds. They had the advantage. The element of surprise and two against one were what they had. Of course, the enemy had magic and shadow powers. Maybe they were at the disadvantage. Whatever the situation, they're hearts were in their throats as the steps got closer.

"On three." Kyle mouthed. Brian did a quick one nod and watched him as his ears picked up the steps.

"One." The steps were very close.

"Two." Just around the corner. Kyle paused. What was he waiting for?

"THREE!" He bellowed into some odd war cry and dived out at the figure just as their foot landed on the asphalt. Both boys immediately took down the figure with their combined weight and pinned it down to the ground with in a matter of seconds. A stunned breath was all the sounded from the figure, then they realized who it was.

"HOLY SHIT! WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU?!" Brain cried out angrily as he got off the very freaked-out looking Bakura off the ground. He was shaking badly and kept blinking from Kyle to Brian.

"I-I was looking for everyone else…They weren't at school today." Kyle placed a hand over his face to keep himself from collapsing with relief as Brian's face clouded over.

"We were looking for Joey, Tristan, and Kaiba today. They're missing!" He growled. "Which Serenity found odd since her brother and Tristan always leaves her a note, so does Kaiba for Mokuba. We couldn't find any letters at all. And if they disappeared together it couldn't have been of their own free will…I mean, Joey and Kaiba hate each other." Brian gave him the equivalent of a 'Well DUH' look.

"Where have you been?" Bakura looked at him straight in the face for a moment, and then shrugged.

"At school of course." Kyle and Brian shared a brief glance with each other and then looked back at Bakura, who just started sweatdropping.

"You guys do believe me. Right?"

"Um, sure we do…"

There was a small pocket of silence.

"Bill left the school today, it was on the speakers, and I figured something was up, so, I went looking for the rest of you…and if you don't believe I'm me, I can tell you something the other me wouldn't know." Brian and Kyle looked at each other, and then shared an evil grin.

"Okay…"

~          ~          ~

"And…            Here       we      go!" Mokuba quickly pressed the on button on the pager and with a full grin on his face; Bill and Ann crowded around him, and waited a moment. Then he waited two moments. Then three. Then a minute. Then another minute until he finally slammed the plastic against the side of the car. Nope, nothing. Everyone's hopes were just killed off with a flash of lightning, and gloomily backed away from each other and sulked in their chairs. After what seemed like ten minutes of eternity someone suddenly giggled. Ann looked at Bill, who stared dumbfounded, and then to Mokuba who suddenly just started cracking up in his seat uncontrollably.

"Oh my god. He's finally cracked, he couldn't take the pressure. Kaiba is going to kill me." Bill moaned. Ann sat there looking at him like he had two heads. He started even harder at the looks on their faces and between quieting fits he said two words.

"WE'RE           IDIOTS!" And started with another fit.

"Speak for yourself." Ammon suddenly voiced, causing Ann to hit her head against the roof of the car painfully as Bill suddenly grabbed him and tried to get him to stop laughing.

"What? Why are we idiots?!"

"Because," He said and whispered a small giggle, "We still can get out of here…you have magic." Realization suddenly took over Ann as Bill immediately got the joke and too started cracking up, but he also snapped both of his fingers rather loudly and tore off the door to Ann's right.

BookDragon: "Please review!"


	22. Rain, Rain, Get the Hell Away!

Chapter 22: Rain, Rain, Get the Hell Away! 

"I figured you didn't want any broken bones!" Bill retorted, walking on the sidewalk at a bit out of the usual rhythm. Mokuba just turned his head and casted him a look that Ann didn't see and replied.

"Floating out of the car was a smart idea except for the fact there was a truck in the on coming lane…"

"Hey! I took the hit! What are you complaining about?!" 

"Your leg reformed after wards."

"Yes, but I don't really think it set right," Bill's teeth clenched as he accidentally stepped wrong, but ignored the pain and kept limping onward. "And besides, it still hurt like hell…" 

            Ann was ignoring their conversation, or trying to, she still could hear them a little bit but Calendae's voice was loud in her mind.

/It will not be so easy to escape again. We must tread cautiously /

"We've already escaped about ten times!"

/ That may be…but around the eleventh time they take something precious to you. /

"Like what?"

/ Your family, for starters. /

"For starters?! What else could mean more to me?!" Calendae was silent for a long time, and for once Ann didn't know what she was thinking about. May be it had to do with what one felt for a boyfriend. That was one major difference between them, the small change that eerily reminded her of Marie, no matter how distasteful.

"What does he look like?"

/Who? /

"…Your boyfriend."

/ I can't tell you. You should know personal information is not allowed. /

"You know everything about me…"

/ Most things. I have no idea why you have a broken heart. / Ann stopped dead in her tracks. For the first time in a long time she felt a turning ill feeling in her gut at the sentence, so clear formed in her head that it had stabbed her, and in a fit of pain her anger was set free.

"Don't go there…" She growled nastily, catching both boys attention. They halted.

"No one must know of that. Ever."

/ It's causing the guilt you know. Someone must have hurt you very badly. If you told someone- /

"They would know the dark part of me." She whispered, taking a deep breath to calm herself down, and regretting she had just said that aloud, looking straight into Mokuba's face. She shut her eyes quickly to try and burn out the perplexed look that had snuggled onto his face.

"I'm never going to let that take me again. I hate my past self." She murmured, and let her eyes side open to their looks of confusion, and a brief light flickering behind Bill's eyes; worry.

"I'm fine." She told them with a placid face, borrowed from Seto Kaiba. Not as slick as she would have liked but it worked all the same as they blinked and stared a moment longer before turning and navigating their way home.

            They walked for what seemed like hours, trying to figure out which streets they had passed, but finding the names where alien and coming to realize they were very lost. This fear of being lost was one that Ann was too cowardly to face. The thought of it made her a bit frightened, not that she'd let them know that girly-girl part of her was frightened that is. No, she'd hide behind the survivor mask she liked to wear a lot.

"Maybe you should get a map." Mokuba said, talking to Bill. They didn't have any money to speak of, and he was the most experienced magician here. But Bill's goofy smile that had wound itself onto his face in these griming hours was finally ripped off at Mokuba's statement.

"Can't. I used all the juice I had on the floating trick, no power, no anything." Mokuba frowned at this and looked at the burning orange orb, slowly dying and voyaging to its earthy tomb behind some far off hills, and then sadly at his black and white worn sneakers. Bill also frowned at his expression for a moment, and then beamed a smile again.

"Don't worry! Things can't possibly get any worse."

"Don't say-!" But it was already too late. A sudden wet drip landed flat on Bill's head, and in the next moment a hundred drops followed into a down pour.

"-that, you'll jinx us." Ann gloomily finished. The three looked at the black sky sadly and decided to take refuge somewhere, and started to run.

            After about four blocks they found a newspaper stand and quickly ran under its dry roof almost drown. Bill sat on the cement with a small thud, looking sullenly up to the sky, as Mokuba rung out his hair as much as he could and then placed himself next to Bill. Ann sat, letting her hair stay wet (and tamed) and looked at her toes. All of them shivered.

"Can't find home. No place to go. It's pouring."

"We at least have a roof over our heads." Bill replied.

"There's that at least." Ann sighed, realizing for the first time that she actually wanted her boring life back. To sleep in her own bed without worrying about some power evil you form another world coming to kill you in her mind. She had felt safe in Bill's home, but out on the street with no one else she did feel afraid. And she didn't like it at all.

"Hey, is that…" Ann looked up from her toes to across the street in the direction Mokuba was pointing. She smiled.

"Sorry we're late. We've been looking for you all day." Kyle said, after running to them when he finally saw them waving from across the street. Brian there seconds after Kyle with Bakura at his heels.

"Where did you guys go?" Brian asked, grinning because their task was finally fulfilled. Bill shrugged tiredly as Kyle looked at him curiously, wanting to hear the story.

"It's a long story…do you guys know the way home?" 

"You don't know the way back to your own house?!" Brian started laughing at him, and caused Bill to shoot up and confront him.

"Doesn't matter. Mister 'I know the way' is lost too." Jabbing his thumb in Brian's direction. Brian immediately struck him with a fast punch, sending him straight to the ground. Agitated, he scrambled back up again and was about to deliver his own jab when Mokuba interjected.

"What's wrong with you?!" Everyone looked at Bakura, who was very white in the face and was starting self-consciously at his shoes. Kyle was driven away from his target at Mokuba's question.

"He's alright. When he said that we could ask him anything we just asked him if he ever wanted to date a girl and…" He glanced at Ann a moment, "and…you know…" 

Bakura's head shot up with a look of horror and his face beat red with embarrassment. They ignored him.

"When he started stuttering and going all sweaty and spouting gibberish we knew he was himself." Brian finished with a bored look on his face. 

"What are you talking about?" Ann asked them. Her companions exchanged glances (except Bakura because he was suddenly very interested with the space above Ann's head) and looked back at her with an expression Ann couldn't quite piece together. Secretive and something else.

"Nothing you don't need to know about."

"Yeah it's man's business." Ann just started at them a moment. Then she busted out laughing.

"What's so funny?" Bill asked.

"The fact my sister has a boyfriend and you guys are trying to be all hush hush about this." They blinked.

"I hang around with you guys. I know about that kind of stuff…unfortunately… damn health class, and besides taking one look at Joey on the boat ride to Duelist Kingdom when he first saw Mai is enough anyway. I've heard my share of sickening stories." This seemed to set things a bit back to normal.

"O-K. Back to being lost here."

"Well, what should we _do_ mister high and mighty?" Kyle thought a moment. Then he shrugged.

"We could always look for the others…after this rain clears up." He suggested.

No one else had any better ideas. 

BookDragon: "Please review."


	23. Drunks

Chapter 23: Drunks

The back of the van was stuffy, and very very very cold. Ann shivered, but made no move to huddle and keep warm. She let her legs flop on the ground in front of her, as punishment for being so stupid. That and maybe she'd die of frost bite before they could have the satisfaction of killing her. 

The truck hit another speed-bump, but it had no affect on her. She was busy re-living what had just happened to make sense of it. Even if she didn't want to.

"Why don't we stop somewhere?" Bill asked, stopping at the corner of the sidewalk, exhausted and shifting his weight on each foot, grimacing. Ann's feet hurt too. Everyone's did.

"And where would that be?" Brian asked. He stood perfectly fine, with his head high, with absolutely no sign of pain at all; he was on the track team.

"Umm…"

"Doesn't matter! I'll go anywhere; my feet are killing me!" Kyle said and watched Bakura and Mokuba bob their heads in agreement. Ann shifted from her left foot to her right foot, trying hard not to complain, but was failing. Bill quickly looked around, as if his life depended on it, and spotted a noticeable building with flashing lights.

"There!" 

            Ann felt horror stricken, standing in front of the building Bill had picked out, her face growing rather hot.

"It's a bar." Bill said flatly to her.

"It's a club."

"So?"

"Do you have any idea what happens at clubs?!" 

"People dance."

"And drink!"  

"Um… no they don't." Ann looked up at the blue neon writing, reading FREE BEER, and turning angrily back to Brian, Kyle, and Bill. Except they weren't there anymore, any of them. She turned again to see Bill disappearing into the swinging doors, a look of joy on his face. That left her in a predicament.

1 Stand up for what you believe in. Stay out side!

2 Go in with your friends, be careful

3 Screw 1 and 2. GET DRUNK!

4 Just sit down, and listen to the music

            Ann debated a few moments.

"This is ridiculous." She muttered, sitting at the bar, ignoring the amber liquid in a glass meant for her and her grateful toes. She couldn't even believe they were actually serving any of them cocktails; they were all under age for god's sake!  These people must be insane. Or piss drunk. What-ever the situation, she hated beer. Her uncle had been an alcoholic; took him years to get off. Goes to show its bad for you. Ann sighed and took the little stick in her "Drink" and spun it around, ignoring Bill screaming something about bottles of beer on the wall. He had one too many drinks after she had told him not too at all. Everyone did. Except Mokuba and Bakura, who both ordered Chocolate milk and were hiding in the corner of the complex in fear of being spotted by girls. Okay that was Bakura. Mokuba didn't care really. Ann had just about given up on controlling any of them. She glanced at Bill sitting up on the soda machine swinging a full bottle around as Kyle spoke to the females of the party happening around them; Brain was off somewhere betting and playing cards. Gambling was okay, as long as you had the money to pay for it, which Brian didn't. So, yet another one of Ann's warning were denied any thought.

            Ann let her finger circle the rim of the wine glass, ignoring the people staring at her in the corner of her eye. She had no thought for mingling, dancing, or flirting. Get the hell out of my face if they came up to her and check please! 

"And then I said, what mummy that's just a guy wrapped in linen!" Ammon suddenly shouted behind her, Ann didn't dare turn to see what he was up to. He had to be drunk on account Bill was. This was really bad. 

            Suddenly there was movement in the corner of her eye. Someone was approaching her. She kept cool a moment, watching and feeling their presence to make sure. They were right up behind her and clasped her on the shoulder.

"THAT'S IT! GET THE FUC-" Her voice died in her throat at who she was staring at.

"Hello." Kakra smiled broadly, showing what looked like a good set of teeth. Marik stood tall behind her, keeping his eye on business instead of the giggling girls in at a near by table. Ann would have admired him for that if she wasn't so damned surprised to see Joey, Kaiba, and Tristan sitting with them, all as jabbering over their words. Kaiba was acting very scary, smiling and beaming… and cracking knock-knock jokes. This was very bad.

"W-what did you do to them?"

"We detained them using alcohol, no sentitives…had to shut up Wheeler and Kaiba somehow."

"Shut up Marik." Kakra snapped at him, darting to check up on her sweet heart at the table where Bakura and Mokuba were sitting. Intimidating his lesser half, not flirting with other women. She was pleased.

"You have no one to rely on, _Ann, what will you do?" She did though, Calendae, but something about this situation smelt foul, and it wasn't the body odor._

"Yes, there is a trap if you try to run or try any thing tricky..." Kakra whispered, eyes darting to the corners of the room, were fog started to pour from and an odd snarling Ann was only able to hear…

"What will you do?" Ann hesitated. Couldn't put the others in danger or any of these drunken fools. Open and shut case.

"I'll come quietly, if you don't hurt anyone." Kakra's smile widened, as her fingers motioned to Marik. He took her by the shoulders and restrained her.

"Darling?" Kakra purred, making Ann feel ill. TombRobber turned from his business with Bakura, who was very white in the face.

"Yes, my sweet?" His eyes were sparkling, and he was grinning an evil grin. Ann was unprepared for what happened next.

"Have fun."

            TombRobber's smile exploded in Ann's head like a time-bomb and her eyes widened, knowing that he would release whatever monster they had brought with them; her friends were to die. And she could do nothing. She immediately started to thrash but Marik's hold was too tight, and Calendae would not answer any of her shrieking calls for help. No one answered them. She was taken away out the doors, watching as TombRobber turned back to his counterpart evilly.

            Ann should have put up some sort of fight, not walk out like a soar loser. Idiot! Why didn't she do something?! No point in being angry now, other things at hand, most likely the fact the ice-cream truck freezer was not killing her fast enough, and she had no other means in which to do it herself. She couldn't scream or retort in any foul language of the sort since they gagged her as well as had her hands and feet bound with some sort of rope, which seemed unbreakable since it looked to be shadow-realm material. She wondered why they didn't kill her in the club. No one answered her question. Ann sighed and let her head bob down in defeat, trying not to think about it anymore for she'd probably start weeping. She was caught. Kakra was going to get her prize. 

It was time to face the music.

BookDragon: "Short I know. Had a busy day."  


	24. Sheep in Wolf’s Clothing

Chapter 24: Sheep in Wolf's Clothing

            When the doors finally opened, Ann's teeth were chattering at what seemed to be mock-one, even with the gag, which in turn seemed to be an amusement to Marik as he pulled out a black cloth and blinded her. No speech, no hands or legs, and no sight; just wonderful.  She was thrown upon his shoulder roughly, enough to jar a few bones, but nothing that hurt too much, just a throbbing as he jumped out of the van and started walking in some direction. 

            It's a horrible experience. Being taken in one direction for a long time, with only your sense of smell and touch to aid you, and to be aware that in the surrounding blackness you were with enemies. The only worse thing is to be taunted. 

"You are in for a real treat, Ann." Kakra's musical voice echoed, "You should feel honored. You're being killed by a first class assassin."

"Nout a sheat a'd lik" Ann responded.

"Marik, remove the gag."

"Of course." Ann felt a shuffling from his muscles under her as she was shifted. The knot pressing on the back of her head was loosened and the cloth was soon out of her mouth.

"What was that you said?" Ann cleared her throat and tried to direct her head to where Kakra was walking, which was in front of her. Her neck protested agitatedly, but gave in to her demand.

"I said, not a treat I'd like. What do you plan on doing to me?" A small chuckle came from in front of her.

"_What I'll do with you?_ There are many ways of punishment for such a sweet occasion.  So many in fact, I can't decide. I could burn you alive, cut you into pieces every slowly and keep you alive for years of pain, call a shadow demon to devour your soul, or even just slice your heart from you chest."

"The last one is very messy, but satisfying." Marik's voice breathed in her ear ever so softly. Ann shivered due to how close his mouth was. A truly sickening thought.

"Don't like the sound of that, I see. But no matter, I can't do anything immediately. I have to wait for the return of my love to help me choose, he always has the best ideas. Your death will truly be an amusing moment for the two of us."

"And me." Marik's voice tuned in enthusiastically.

"And you." Kakra voice replied bluntly.

            After a long time of death conversation about all the different ways to kill her, Ann realized there were a _ton_ of ways, and each becoming worse. There was one about scarabs eating her alive that was particularly terrifying. But all this talk did not end, even when Ann was moved down to her feet a moment, not lightly mind you, and had her arms placed up. Her thumbing feet were lifted off the ground again, but her arms were placed under strain due to something holding her up by her bonds. Finally his hands were off her, and she let out a quiet sigh of relief, as Kakra kept talking. But Ann was done with hearing about it.

"Are you going to keep sucking up air or unblind me?"

"Touchy are we?"

"The fact your going to kill me gives you no right to think I'll be all nice-nice. Now take the damn thing off." 

"Are you _sure_?"

"Yes." Ann breathed angrily. A moment later the cloth was off and a huge amount of light hit her square in the eyes. Squinting immediately, she ignored the evil giggling and blinked a lot, clearing her vision enough to see she was an enclosed room. The only light was in the torches blazing in each corner and the two flames blazing on either side of her. Her eyes strayed from the metallic darkened walls, to a thick metal door, to her wrists on either side of a nasty looking hook, holding the dense rope around them. The hook oddly remained her of Peter Pan and Captain Hook's famous hand, or lack of one. Funny how such childish memories could slightly lighten a mood.

"What are you _smiling _at?" Ann shook her head, chuckling a little.

"Don't bother. It's after your time…where are we?"

"A special location."

"What's so _special_ about it?" Ann asked, keeping a placid face, even though her heart refused to be so calm. Her sleeves had pooled uncomfortably around her arms, but she ignored it. Kakra grinned, a sparkling smile that could fool a Miss America judge into thinking she was very kind.

"Well," She started, voice at full musical annoying blast, "It's a place in which has many dangerous ways of…how should I say? _Accidentally, tripping and falling to one's doom." She giggled in a high pitched voice, holding her hand in front of her mouth, and looking insane. Ann was wagging her feet with boredom._

"This is going to be _so_ much fun- Ah! It seems he's back!" Ann was almost sure Kakra was going to jump off the cemented ground like a preppy little girl and get all hyper; like Marie did when her boyfriend visited. Her face was gushing with the same look her sister gave at that moment; how sickening. When am I going to throw up? Ann thought annoyingly.

            The white haired teen emerged into the room, head high and looking very…there was no other word to describe it…handsome. Never in her life did Ann want to spew so much. His grin started beaming, looking around to Marik and Kakra, as he removed a blood-stained cloth and let it fall to the floor. A ragged piece of Joey's shirt.

"This was the only thing that wasn't burning." Kakra's eyes lit up with hearts as she dashed over to him and threw her arms around.

"Oh! You're _wonderful_!" Ann was staring at the cloth, feeling a void starting to swallow her. Tragically she lifted her eyes and had to glance at the couple before letting them fly to the ceiling. Kakra was kissing, full blown French one (Ann's stomach lurched) and TombRobber- was frozen like a statue? Ann looked back, but it was over, and Kakra was putting her hands in his back pants pockets and cuddling very close to him, which he was grinning at.

"I have soo much to talk to you about!" She pulled him closer and started tracing lines on his chest; Ann claimed her eyes shut. But, to Ann's lucky red embarrassed face, two pairs of footsteps walked away from her and then a door slam. Her eyes slowly crept open.

Marik was up in her face.

"JEEZ!" Maybe she wasn't so lucky. His hand raised and placed itself around her arm. Click. Ann saw the bracelet that had once been around her arm in Marik's waving tan fist.

"Don't want you to escape now, do we?" He laughed. He backed away.

Okay, she was lucky.

"But don't worry, I'll leave it here," He placed it on the floor close to one of the fires. "So you can look at it before you meet your fate. Can't tell Amit I didn't do at least one good thing." He laughed and walked casually to the end of the room, slowly opened the door, and was about to close it before he stopped.

"Oh, by the way…when you do see the after life, tell your friends it was nice doing business with them." He grinned one last time and slammed the door behind him.

            For how long Ann huge by her wrists was uncertain. Enough to cut off the circulation more than once and have to hold herself up by gripping the curved edge of the hook and pulling. More than once did she try to reach her feet to the bracelet, glinting in the fire light at her, but found it useless. She was at least three inches off the ground and had no tool to help here. She even tried kicking over the container in which the fire dwelled, but found that too was impossible.

"Damn it." Ann groaned, at the tip of panic. 

"Why did you not help me?" She growled, looking angrily at the bracelet.

"You damnable piece of rubbish. I hope you burn in hell!" She kicked her legs out furiously, and to her horror met the golden circle with the tip of her shoe and sent it flying into the door, bouncing off and somewhere into the deepening darkness.

That was it. 

Ann screamed and starting thrashing her feet, so enraged with herself, she started crying. Tears steamed on her checks, as her hands flopped above her head, and her body shook. She knew crying wasn't going to help, but there was nothing else to do.

She wept herself into a slumber.

            A door slam brought the world back to Ann in a stricken moment. Her eyes flung open and all her muscles tensed, causing a rushing pain through her hands. The world was black, and for a moment she thought she still hand her eyes closed until a match suddenly flared up, exposing a head of white hair. 

"What do you want?" Ann growled at him. He said nothing, and walked to the moldering pile next to her and threw the match onto it, sending a flame flaring up again, his head down and hidden. He rose this way, eyes concealed under huge mounds of white.

Click.

            A switch blade rose in front of her face, and Ann braced herself for the stab. A tang sounded above her head, causing her eyes to snap open and look at the rope being cut. She turned from the sight in a leap of shock, to his face.

            But it wasn't TombRobber. It was Bakura's white face. With lipstick-kiss on his cheek.

"Never again will I listen to Bill's crazy ideas." He muttered angrily to himself as he hacked furiously with the knife.

"I thought you were dead. I thought everyone was dead." Bakura looked away from his work and glanced at her a moment, still sawing he spoke.

"Well, Mokuba and I weren't drunk. Mai, Serenity, Tea, Yugi, and Marie showed up. Your sister grabbed Bill off the soda machine faster than I thought possible. And Ammon wasn't as drunk as you thought." He paused and wiped a bit was sweat out of his view and continued.

"When we got out of there Bill went after the trunk. He actually got in front of it but it was too late and he got run over," Ann remembered the speed bump thoughtfully, "but he peeled himself off the road with some help. It's an eerie thing, peeling someone off the street in the middle of the night. Anyway, Ammon constructed a plan with the help of Yami and the rest of the group. Unfortunately they decided they needed me to go in a pretend to be…him…and get you out of here."

"What happened to…him?"

"Bill's keeping him in a safe place…Last one…"

"And Kakra…?" Bakura looked sicken at the ropes at the mention of her name.

"She wouldn't let me left! She kept talking about death and destruction and… and….and…" His voice was high pitched and shaky. Ann looked thoughtfully at him, as he slowly clamed down.

"Luckily it was her time of the month. Thank God. So when she finally got sick of me she sent me out." The last cord was cut and Ann's feet hit the floor. Her hands were free, and she had an odd feeling like she wanted to leap up and hug him, but didn't to save herself from anymore awkwardness. She rubbed her rope burned wrists and looked around the room franticly.

"Something wrong?" Bakura asked.

"They took off the bracelet."

"Then we have to find it!" Bakura turned for the door but Ann stopped him.

"Wait! It's not out there. Marik left it in here…and…in a fit of anger kicked it."

"Well that was smart." Ann hid her surprise at Bakura's comment as she walked in the direction she thought it flew. Bakura followed her, flicking the knife shut and taking the handle on which the small fire leaped on. 

            After a while of walking around and staring at the ground they found the bracelet, tucked in the farthest corner of the room. Ann carefully picked it up, rolled her sleeve up, and placed it on her arm with a snap.

"Good. Now let's get out of here." Ann nodded in agreement and headed for the door.

            For a long time they walked in silence, down a long hall way full of thick darkness with only the flame to shed a small bit of light ahead of them. The smell of the smoke was irritating, but not horrible. Their footsteps were haunting, echoing farther beyond them, no matter how much both tried to quiet them. It was truly a stressful walk, but finally they reached another open dark hallway and a bright red sign blinked at them from a far.

EXIT

Ann's heart leapt. The thought of escape was clear and strong. It was in the bag!

Suddenly a light switched on out of nowhere, slaying the black fog and exposing the two teens. They froze in surprise, but for only a moment until a shout ripped the air. Then they were sprinting, at full tilt, as fast as possible. The door grew steadily closer, but so did the stomping steps behind them. Somehow she made it before Bakura and threw the door open wide, and turned to give him her hand. Bakura's fingertips touched, only for a brief moment, then he was hurtled away briskly by Marik holding him by the back of his shirt. Before Bakura could slip out of it Marik's arm slipped around his neck and pressed and he immediately figured out he couldn't breath and grabbed back at the tanned arm frantically. Ann stared wide-eyed and unable to figure out what to do, to run and get help, or to take them on. 

She never had to make the decision.

Ann was suddenly shoved roughly out of the way by someone behind him, enough to collide with the door and fall to her knees. Raising her head she saw Ammon standing tall, staff at hand, but not pointed. 

"You alright?" Ann looked up and found Tea staring at her with some concern but Ann nodded and got to her feet. Marie suddenly was next to her with Mokuba, Tristan, Serenity, and Mai. Brian and Kyle were walking up to meet Ammon, Yami, and Joey at an invisible line. Kakra and Marik stood confidently about a foot away from them, grinning. Bakura stopped struggling and sort of just hung there as Kakra started talking.

"What happened to my monster?!" Ammon pointed out a fist and let a pile of ashes fall to the ground in response. Marik blinked a nervous flash in his eyes. Kakra regained her composure faster.

"Another inch closer and we'll kill your friend." Gee like we couldn't guess that. Ammon said nothing for a moment, but smiled, then widened it to a full grin. Kakra looked curiously at him as he motioned Kyle forward. Kyle and Brian walked right next to him and Kyle pulled a jar out of his pocket. Kakra's jaw dropped.

            Standing in the jar was a small human looking figure pounding on the glass with bright white hair. TombRobber. A whirl of horror leapt to Kakra's face as did her hands, eyes wide with fright.

"Oh! Let him go you beast!"

"Fat chance," Ammon sneered, "You have something we want, and we have something you want. How about a trade?" Kakra thought for a moment, then another, then a minute. After a while Kyle grinned at Brian and said allowed.

"Hey look Brain…I forgot to put holes in the jar…" Both teens shared a nasty grin as Kakra panicked.

"Give him back!" She lunged forward but was caught by Marik's free hand. Ammon's grin widened.

"If _you_ come any closer then _we'll _kill him." She froze in place, just staring for what seemed to be a long time.

"The clock is ticking, my dear," Ammon replied.

"Better make up your mind…"

BookDragon: "Please review!"


	25. The Beginning of the End

Chapter 25: The Beginning of the End

            Time swept slowly by, like a lazy wave pushing forward on a dreary gray morning. The air was thick with a tense sense of emotion, vibrating from all of them, as they stood rigidly, on the tip of the knife; on the tip of hope.

            Kakra's head stayed down, almost in submission, with her thick brown locks masking her face completely. Marik simply glared at them, purple eyes at full flash and his arm frozen in place at his chest, holding Bakura strongly to him. Bakura hid his face also with his hair, which seemed logical; if you have it, use it. 

            Ammon stood at full height, and maybe taller since he seemed to be towering over Yami, Kyle, and Brian, like some giant. Strange, it reminded Ann of the time being chased by the ice-cream truck in Bill's car. His brown eyes flickered like roaring fire, and his face was as serious as stone. Yami's expression matched Ammon's, maybe even went beyond description, and held his arms firmly to his sides, ready for any false move. Brian and Kyle tried mimicking them, and with out much success, but enough to get the job done. It would have been humorous watching them with such serious blank stares if the situation wasn't a live and death one. The distant thumbing of the glass jar went unnoticed to everyone, including the group of onlookers, which contained more women than men. Joey, Tristan, Mai, Marie, Serenity, and Tea watched anxiously, with tight fists and worried expressions in their group. Ann stood near them, watching everyone's faces and feeling the stress, pushing her own chest like a heavy weight. Being crushed by it. 

            Ann felt calm, but it was an eerie sort of calm. A placid feeling after you learn that one of the closest people to you passes way in some horrific circumstance. She continued to wear her glazed eyes as she wondered about things, none of which had anything to do with the predicament at hand.

            It was funny, she actually felt sort of homesick. She wondered if her parents were worried about her; she knew her brother was going to pretend he wasn't even though he actually crying out every few seconds 'Where's Ann?!' at the top of his lungs. It was odd, she actually wanted to hear denying the fact he did miss her, only because he couldn't lie.

            Was Marie's boyfriend looking for her? Was he worried about her sudden disappearance for the past few days and frantically looking for her? Screaming at the top of his lungs her name? Ann doubt it a little. Probably not bugging him that much… He never did actually call, but he always kissed her on the way out the door-

            Where's Calendae?

            Ann blinked at the pure randomness of this thought, but yet it made sense. Where was her other self? She hadn't talked to her since before the bar incident. Was she missing? Or worse was she hurt? Ann's mind shifted to call on her, and found a open white lighted doorway waiting for her. She lifted her right shoe and-

"Let us trade."  Kakra's voice broke in, causing Ann to hear that sort of whoosh noise and start blinking as her eyes focused on Kakra's stern face, looking sullenly in Ammon's direction. 

"Yes, let's." Ann watched him smile and he nodded his head at Yami, who in turn placed a careful hand at Kyle. Kyle looked at it a moment, seeming saddened he placed the jar squarely in Yami's hand. He curled his fingers around the glass carefully and took a wary  step forward, toward Kakra. 

            Kakra nodded in return, jerked her head in Marik's direction, and sent him trudging forward. Both teens walked, forward, keeping a tight hold on each of their goods, and meet the other group.

            Kakra took the jar from Yami the same exact moment Marik set Bakura down by Ammon's elbow. Each transporter briskly turned and started to walk away, back to the other side. Yami was about five steps away when he was suddenly hit from the back by a fire ball and would have meet the ground if he hadn't been prepared for it, he turned in mid-motion and placed a sphere of light in Kakra's direction. The motion of the attack and being hit sent him painfully into the ground, enough to make a small crater in the cement. Ann stared at the dent in the floor for only a shocked glance before something hot flew across and singled the hair on her head. Somehow she dodged it and lunged to the floor for safety. Finally a whole lot of shouting broke; charging from both sides, yelps, growls, grunts, bellowing, all out and a free-for-all began. 

            Yami's side had the upper-hand, since they did have more man power, even counting that the teenage girls ducked behind the nearest thing for cover. Still they had Joey, Tristan, Ammon, Yami, Brian, Bakura, and Kyle fighting. They should have had the upper head.

            In the moment's before each charging force of body's collided, Ann looked up a brief moment and saw, even though her brain didn't register it at the time, Kakra opened the jar lid with a loud pop. Then a cloud of smog banged thunder and swirled out of the jar, probably TombRobber showing off, and turned the room dark. 

            Blinded by the sudden smoke all the screams were cut off, and only faint breathing echoed across the room. Ann was stupidly trying not to breath, trying to listen to them moving in the cover of the blackness, but she kept hearing breathing softly coming forth. She threw her hand to her mouth in anger, trying to shut herself up. No breath tickled her skin, only the composed breathing sound continued. Ann froze.

            Was it friend or foe? Friendly fire wouldn't exactally be appreciated in this. Deciding not to take the chance of finding out, she crawled with her elbows across the ice cold floor, slithering along, like a mouse in the tall grasses of an Egyptian field. One infested with Cobras.

            Suddenly a loud yelp sounded out of the darkness and then a scream of pain with a loud flaring sound. Was that Tristan?

"Damn this cloud." She said under her breath and surged forward, clawing foot by foot, inch by inch, until someone grabbed her. 

            Something sided swiftly into her back, four long sharp dagger-like objects and pierced and climbed deeper into her back, causing a world of painful stars to collect in her vision. That and high pitched screaming. Later she would be angry at herself for shouting like such a little girl, but now, feeling the blood well up in her mouth, she didn't care. It was all over.

            The stars slowly faded, and the shouting dimmed to a small squeak, the breathing behind her hear was also small. She was welling up in her mind, letting the blood come forth and her eyes close. She was giving up. There was no way out. She was caught and paying for it. Slowly they dipped as the pain grew ten times worse, and an inhuman snarl erupted behind her, until a bright light pierced the sound, and twisted it into loud agonyfulled pain. The knifes disrupted from her back and her eyes slowly fought open, to the calling vivid brightness, beckoning her forth. 

            She gazed, almost thoughtfully, at the piercing glaring light pushing out of the holes in her sweater, from her arm and her torso. The shouting came up louder and strong her in ears, and not at all from her mouth. Lifting her shirt a little she watched bright golden needles sowing sunlit rays into her and bring the now horrific gapping hole in her stomach back together as a whole. Sleepily, with sagging eyelids she let her shirt flop down and turned to her almost murderer.

            A shadowed figure with two thin arms, two legs, a human-like head, a thinly stretched neck, and four very long and spider-like fingers hunched over and clawing at it's throat, it's mouth wide bearing tiny teeth by the thousands, disappearing into the light, dissolving in it like…like…

            Well a shadow. 

            Ann watched it until it was nothing more, somehow not fully awakening from her sleepwalking state, half conscious, she stumbled a little and trudged forward, looking at the floor with the light, acting like a well lit lantern.

            A light much like her's flickered in the distance, causing her to changer her direction and trot toward it, starting to feel a little more awake. No matter how hard she struggled, she couldn't fully wake up, her mind remained dull. She couldn't think straight. She couldn't think at all.

/Ann…/ Ann blinked her eyes slowly, groggily, but kept walking toward the shinning thing.

/Ann…stop./ Ann's feet stopped.

/ Find somewhere to hide. Quick! / Ann dully stood, looking half wittedly around for a spot when someone near by her bellowed and a scream of twisted pain erupted, a human scream. She recognized it.

/Ann? What are you doing?! Stop! Stop! Stop! / Ann ignored the voice sweeping around in her skull and walked to the scream, her mind starting to comeback, her feet moving faster and faster, each moment something telling her stronger and stronger to go to it.

/ANN! YOU MUST ESCAPE! /

"Can't…must…safe." She broke out in to a run at her words and sprinted fast, as fast as she could go, watching the same blackness sweep by her, like a wall. Things were unclear, but still right in front of her as she found herself suddenly leaping and crashing down on another body, digging her hands around and holding on fast as she was thrown about. Struggling she kept hold, letting her legs dangle about, and feeling much like a human rag doll, as she was whipped around. 

            Through half blurred vision she glanced at another body vaguely getting out of the way, and felt the whipping sensation getting stronger. She strengthened her hold at it and hazy bellows of rage meet her ears, but ignored it, and instead grumbled.

"Help…please." Whether it was heard or not was unknown for what seemed like an eternity until the captive started screaming and hurtled her off. Tumbling into the cool hard cement woke her up a bit, sent a jolt of awareness through her mind, enough to see another shadow creature evaporate in front of her eyes in a big bang of luminosity. And the clear figure of Joey rang out in front of her.

BookDragon: "Cliffy! HAHAHA. Stories almost over. About two more chapters, people!"


	26. CottonCandy Clouds

Chapter 26: Cotton-Candy Clouds

            Ann kept down as Joey's head popped up over the edge of the table, much like one of those Whack-A-Mole games, even though they couldn't see very far into the blackness. It was still a good time to check, especially with those _things_ running around. All the blonde strains landed as Joey averted his brown orbs to her, vague in emotion.

"Nothing I can see." He said this with a sort of muffled accent since his lip was increasing in size. The deep ragged cuts in the arms of his shirt where soaking the access blood, making one almost afraid to wonder how bad the wounds were underneath.. He didn't seem to give the injury any care. There was also a large hole in the side of his green shirt, self inflicted. Ann reconsidered the pattern from the bloodied patch Bakura had brought. When she asked about it he replied,

"Yeah. They ruined my favorite shirt." In an angry tone. Ann noticed his eyes kept glancing at the bright light erupting from Ann's middle.

            Her sweater was still, but she could feel the light needles being sown in and out as if by invisible hands, making her wince every so often with sudden jolt of discomfort, no matter how hard she tried to hide it. Perhaps she was a bad actor or Joey knew a lot about injuries due to the many fights in his past. That or both.

"If we make a run for the stairs I think, maybe, we could get a sky view, maybe see where everyone is…are you sure you're okay?"

"Yeah, fine. What happens if we get attacked?" Joey shrugged.

"Oh, that makes me feel better…"

"On three?" Ann looked at him nervously, twitched her fingers with a short period of discomfort and nodded. The blonde peered over the table, keeping watch incase of a sudden change of plans and held a finger up to her. 

One

A pause.

Two

Second pause. Ann fidgeted uneasily in her crouched position, eyes darting to his stern face to his and his hand. What would she do if he was mortally injured? Could she do anything? What happens if they run into TombRobber or anyone of their other enemies? What if they run into all of them? Ann had no time to calculate that because the two pale fingers turned to three and a hand gruffly pulled her to her feet by the shoulder. 

            They ran.

            Joey's strides were even and well placed, out running Ann easily with about three steps. She would have feel behind if he hadn't claimed his hand down on her shoulder and was almost dragging her faster than she could run. She was at her limit and trailing behind him. It took them a moment to reach another table and duck behind it, catching the short amount of rest that was handed to them and started off again. They did this in quick repetition, diving behind what ever they could find at the moment, until finally they stopped behind a desk and Joey popped his head up again. His face came back down, added with a widening grin, going from ear to ear, on his face.

"I can see the stairs." He said in a gleeful whisper, panting a little, not as much as Ann. She could have created a mini tornado with the amount of air coming out of her lungs. This was horrible, having no active nature in the past, and being the nerdy kid in her class. She took rapid deep breaths, looking at him tiredly. He didn't notice. He grabbed her shoulder again and started sprinting, forcing her rebelling muscles to hail his and work. They screamed in her thoughts, not allowing her to think, until they were suddenly brought to a halt, when Joey threw her away from him and disappeared somewhere near by. Where she wasn't sure, she was too busy having her face meet the cement. When she finally got her head to stop spinning she picked herself up, and turned around as fast as she dared.

            No monster stood there. Only a very red-faced Kaiba with a messy whirl-winded hairdo, bright eyes staring. He stood rigidly, unlike his usual high-headed royal appearance, but a bit unsure in footing and puffs of breath, his face anxious and most certainly horrified, and Serenity hugging his neck weakly.

This did not go over well with Joey Wheeler.

            Joey's right eye twitched and his fingers curled and uncurled as his whole body shook, much like a man about to go violently insane. Ann was noting he probably was insane now. He looked like he was going to erupt, his facing going beyond a plum color, a purple-color that had no name. His breathing was labored, with unknown rage building from every point in his body, his eyes flashing fiery crimson, his jaw clenched, and his fingers cracking as they writhed into abnormal positions.

            Kaiba took an involuntary step away from him, shifting uneasily from his right foot to his left, just gazing at him with actual fear printed out on his face, turning his crimson completion whiter than any white imaginable. The powerful CEO, in fact, started to shake. Kaiba was _frightened._ Ann's eyes widened with the sudden realization, gawking at this whole wordless affair with a ghastly atmosphere, unable to move, or think, of anything logical to attempt. Joey was probably beyond all help.

            It was either Ann's blank face or Kaiba's wide navy eyes that made Serenity look at her brother. Her hazel eyes bloomed with concern turned to worry and fright. For whose safety we will never know.

"Joey?" 

Joey exploded. He blasted all the hot air from his lungs with a bellow so inhuman it took Ann by surprise that Kaiba wasn't a heap on the floor. His voice was a full tilt, screaming, bellowing, shouting, growling, and most certainly spitting in all one sound that made their hands leap to their ears. His shout was beyond swearing. He was threatening. He was making a promise to kill Kaiba personally. Something about getting him no matter where he went, he would find him and gut him? Kaiba would never sleep again because Joey would never rest until he was dead? Some pretty damn scary stuff.

With this whole speech about how the reaper would soon be visiting Kaiba. Ann finally got a clear though her skull, a thought about him attracting attention with all this screaming, a thought enough to jolt her immobile limbs.

"SSHHH…Shush…stop, cease, silence, shut up," Ann yelled, but only came out into the air as an easily ignored whisper.

"JOEY! YOU'RE TOO LOUD!" Serenity's voice suddenly broke, quelling his fit to a small yelping whisper. The youngest always has the stronger yelling talent out of any number of siblings. Always. 

            His face turned to its normal color shade and his hands and the rest of him finally relaxed at the sudden mad pout on her face seeped into his brain. But her warning made things only worse.  Something moved in the small silence around them, making everyone freeze. All eyes were on the darkness engulfing them. Watching diligently for any source of movement, as their ears listened hard for the smallest pin drop or noise.          

            Either the shouting had dulled their ears and the poor light made it hard to see, or they were just that talented. Out of no where Ann was grabbed by the back of the shirt and lifted easily into the air by a strong fist and hurtled threw the air very, very, very fast. Her arms meet the ground with a rigid cracking sound, sending her world into a great deal of pain. A distant scream rung out and met her ears; it was her own.

            The hollering and fury in Joey must have made the adrenaline in his system kick in twice as much as normal. He struck out and his fist met Marik straight in the jaw and sent him rapidly to the floor. The blonde curled his fingers roughly around the tomb keeper's shirt and simply picked him up and slammed him harder into the floor, causing the dust to leap from the cracks and cover them a bit. Joey was brought down a second later by TombRobber's swift fire ball into the back of his knees, scorching them. He calmly walked up to the blonde and began to talk.

"It's not the strength you put into an attack. It's location. Location, location, location." He kicked Joey squarely in the shoulder, bring a loud crunch and wincing shriek from the blonde. His arm fluttered limply to the ground, dislocated.

"Now this is hard." The white haired teen placed all lot of force into his leg and thrusted into Joey's side hard enough to cause his eyes to roll into the back of his head and go to the ground. 

TombRobber simply cracked his knuckles as he peered down at Marik, looking him over carefully and watched him climb to his feet, for only a few seconds, until he boredly looked for the other two that had disappeared into the fog. He didn't much like hide and seek as a child, and still didn't now. He turned and watched Kakra smartly walk about the open pocket of air, looking around the floor. When her eyes meet Joey's body she distastefully turned away and looked at her beloved.

"Where are the two?" TombRobber shrugged uncaringly.

"Gone to hide, I suppose. That fool Kaiba wasn't much of a fighter, and the girl was a coward."

"And Her?"

"Ask Marik where he threw her." TombRobber inspected the blood on his boot and whipped it off on Joey disgustedly. Kakra rolled her eyes and crossly grabbed Marik's shirt and lifted him off the ground.

"Where    is   she  ?!" Marik pointed weakly to somewhere in the thickening darkness. Kakra dropped him with a sigh and gave TombRobber that 'your in charge' look and went off in the direction Marik indicated, tired of the game, and wanting ever so much to finish it.

            Ann's eyelids twitched…then slowly drew open. Vivid colors of blue and dark green flooded her vision not at all painfully. Actually, it brought her tense muscles to a lull, and let her eyes wonder about this familiar place. The clouds hung over her tenderly, as a sweet wind brushed out her hair tranquilly. The grass didn't prickle her skin, but instead, stroked it softly. Her mouth twitched. Then gradually spread into a happy smile. It brightened her face; from the usual blank look she gave the world to a joyous hue of emotion. Her eyes twinkled with delight as she made out what kinds of animals where roaming the sky, disguised as big cotton ball clouds. There were herds of deer, a tiger leaping, a turtle eating grass, a griffin clawing at its prey, and many more creatures drifting lazily across the atmosphere. And she intended to enjoy it until she was rudely interrupted.

            Another body shook the earth around her as it collapsed next to her, startling her a bit, but not enough to stir from her spot to look. She watched a dragon hoard its gold reluctantly against a greedy knight when a familiar voice met her ears.

"You know, you can not stay here forever. She _will_ get in."

"Calendae? How did you get here? Where am I?" The girl chuckled lightly, then in a morose voice said.

"I'd think you'd know your own daydreaming room…" 

"You got into my room?"

"Yes, I had to pick the lock while you were sleeping, I'm sorry, but I had to disappear from your thoughts awhile. You had to go through an ordeal I couldn't help you with…I find your creations very impressing." Ann wasn't sure if she should have been thankful or terribly anger with her for entering a forbidden zone. A loud banging and snarling suddenly disrupted her thoughts.

"What was that?"

"That's her, she's trying to break down your barrier. Soon she will succeed in her wishes."

"Her?"

"Kakra." Ann jolted up from her laying position at the sound of her name and looked terrified at Calendae.

"SHE'S IN MY HEAD?!?!" Calendae looked up at her gloomily.

"Yes. She used the power of her sword. She will hack her way through in a few minutes."

"MINUTES?!?!?" Her double nodded her head sadly. Ann's actions were suddenly anxious and desperate as jumped to her feet and rounded a few moments in panic, trying to think, until she grabbed her double's hand.

"Calendae! You've got to help me!" Her eyes looked depressed and weak.

"…I can not, Ann, I'm not allowed to help." She pulled her hand from Ann's grip and downcast her eyes.

"…I'm sorry." Ann stood rooted to the spot, letting her eyes glaze over in horror. There was nothing to be done. It was true. You can't escape death. Ann wobbled down to the grass and felt she could have wept if she had wanted to. She didn't. Her knees hit the grass lightly as her hands, motionless stayed to the ground.

"I'm going to finally get what I deserve." Ann said in a horse whisper. Her eyes were going watery at the thought of it.

"What you deserve?" Calendae asked unsurely.

"Yes. What I deserve." Ann agreed.

"What is that?"

"Death." Ann said, calmly.

"What for? You haven't done anything worse enough for death…have you?" Ann was silent. Then, she turned slowly and met Calendae's face with a wide stare, and ignored the growing pounding far off. Ann sighed.

"It does not matter know if you know…I caused someone's demise. It was stupid. I should have warned him…but my damned pride…I didn't shout for him to get off…and…he died." Ann's head lowed as she let the wetness drip off down her cheeks.

"I was seven…only fricking seven…and I caused someone to die. Why didn't I tell him, warn him, that the board would break? Because I had to beat him in that little trivial childish game, curse my pride, curse how much I felt for that kid, I did actually like him in that sense…and when he didn't like me…that got me so angry. I challenged him to go into the house we were building, to walk across the boards. I crossed safely, when he followed…damn myself to hell." Calendae looked at her.

"That wasn't your fault Ann."

"Yes, it was."

"Even if it was, you've punished yourself enough…I mean living in guilt for that long…"

"It can never be enough. His life is _gone._ Snatched away from him. He can't grow up and live any of the dreams he had. He _can't_. All because I killed him." Ann whispered. She let her head sag with her arms; tears ran freely down her face. And finally, the big hole in herself somewhere became painfully aware. The wind tickled and iced the tears on her face, as Calendae took her chin with one finger and lifted it to face hers.

"Dieing is not enough, being guilty is not enough, you must make amends." Ann stared at her.

"If you die right now, Kakra will win, and even if he…who ever he is…was alive right now he wouldn't have a chance. A lot of people won't have a change…a lot more…hims…and may other people…even his family…this is a change given to you to…make things right…" Even this speech, as corny and shaky as it was, made the hole close a little, but through life it would never entirely leave her, it would be her scar. Calendae whipped some of the dampness off her face with her forefinger, smiling with tears in her own eyes. But the conversation was brought to an abrupt end, when a large and sharp blade gently was placed tipped on Ann's shoulder.

BookDragon: *head down in shame* "That was the bad. OMG did that suck…"

Bill: *looks at the paragraph* "Er…Well… it could have been…worse? Leave a review."


	27. Kinfolk

Chapter 27: Kinfolk

"Get up." Ann rose to her feet, head down in defeat.

"Turn around." She turned obediently, eyes traveling across the threatening blade placidly.

"So, little miss imperfection actually killed someone? Maybe we are of the same kin after all…" Kakra's voice drawled. She was loving every moment of this, as do all villains when they caught the protagonist. But Ann didn't like of herself much as a hero anymore.

"Nothing to say?" Kakra's voice lulled the words compassionately on her tongue.

"No." Ann answered bluntly.

"Well then, it appears I am the victor, would you agree?" Ann opened her mouth to agree.

"I wouldn't say so." A new voice sliced in. Ann blinked perplexed. Did she say that? Surprisingly, Kakra said nothing to the response, and didn't move a muscle.

"As I would see it, the battle is still being fought," Ann stared at the edge of the sword through the corner of her eye, wondering why she lost control of her voice, "now, if you wouldn't mind, _madam_, please remove the sword from the lady's neck."  

            Ann finally looked up.

            Kakra looked straight into her face, with growing resentment, and a deep boiling pit of rage behind her tan face. It wrecked her beauty, smashing it into tiny trivial pieces. Her golden orbs blazed and excelled the hatred fiercely. The sword did not move an inch from her neck, but Kakra's hand kept it at bay, for under her neck was a jet black blade, made of obsidian, and a clenched white fist.

"Take down your weapon or I will _cut_ your throat." The shadowy hooded figure whispered darkly into her ear, carving air with her tone. Kakra paused a moment.

"…Who _are_ you?" The figure took of its hood with it's free hand, and revealed…Ann face?

"_I _am Secacah, or as some call me _The Black Widow._ I am a shadow traveler." Her face turned swiftly to Ann's with glowing silver eyes that pierced her brown ones.

"And you will release _originator_." Kakra blinked, and laughed a moment later.

"What makes you think that I won't just kill you before you can slice me?"

"That would be foolish." Secacah said in reply, carefully and strongly.

"And why would that be?"

"Because, I'll blow your brains out." An instant later a gun barrel nudged into the side of Kakra's temple. Brown and golden orbs turned to another figure, dressed in a black trench coat and black boots, a woman baring firearms of all types, stood glaring at the side of Kakra's head. Her right arm stiffly stretched out holding a square sort of handgun in a gloved hand, missing the fingers. Her index finger itched to pull the trigger.

"Drop the blade or I'll pump you fill of lead." The women said. Kakra stayed unmoved.

"If you don't you'll be looking like a stupid human pin cushion." A lady with a bow shouted across a distant hillside, arrow in her fingers and notched, ready to fire straight through her pretty head. Ann's eyes drifted to the hillsides, watching more moving shapes approaching from the horizon. She knew them all.

            The girl with large brown folds of hair and shinning crimson eyes that was riding bareback on the blood-red dragon was Sonya, translator of all dragon kin. The girl approaching fast on foot with the saving black hair was Sarama, fastest fighter alive. The young woman that sudden appeared in a gust of smoke wearing a bright blue robe and wearing moon shaped glasses was Orenda, master of all magics. And so on and on, girls of all ages and types came flooding over the hillside, some in groups, some alone, some flying by the sky, some emerging from the ground, and some even riding upon an ocean wave or an animal of some sort, some _were_ animal like in teeth and claws, but all bore some unusual talent. Some power Ann had always thought would be awesome to have, and simply created and played out in her own mind. They were everything Ann wanted to be, and everything she wasn't. 

            They were her daydreams.

BookDragon: "I know that was short. By it's my sister's birthday!"

Bill: "Um…review?"


	28. Fare Thy Well

Chapter 28: Fare Thy Well

Kyle, Brian, Bill, and Yami batted away at the darkness, trying to see a little further a head, but failing. They had been walking for what felt like an eternity, of course Yami disagreed heavily to this; he did spend five thousand years in a puzzle and that is only a pin-head compared to forever. They had experienced more than their share of shadow creatures, and were at the point that they were as common as squirrels, and just as easy to kill.

"Did you see that last one? One shot! Didn't even touch me!" Bill said, beaming at his latest victory. Brian and Kyle looked at each other, shrugging, and deciding not to tell him about the giant black knife-like object pointing out of his back.

"Yes, that may be, but there are thousands more lurking in the shadows. You may have defeated a few, but they could kill us with shear numbers… we must find the others." Yami said, his puzzle growing stronger with light, as he walked. The others said nothing to this, and kept up with his pace.

~          ~          ~

"This job is tedious." TombRobber said, twiddling with a sharp knife he pulled out of the shadow realm (where he got it you can us your imagination), using it to clean his nails while he kept one foot on Joey's crumpled form, ignoring Marik's slow breathing on the floor. His ring was lighting a small sphere shaped light ball around him, as was Marik's rod, and Kakra's sword had when she sliced away at the darkness. 

TombRobber sucked on his index finger a moment, slicing into the flesh and causing a drip of blood to start to pour, and took it out of his mouth again, looking down at the Egyptian Tomb Keeper casually, like they were two normal people about to talk at a bus stop, not in a black world with monsters around every corner, and three murderers lurking. They were two, of course, so they had nothing to fear.

"How would you like to play a game?" Marik lifted himself off the floor slowly, holding his head dizzily for a moment, and muttering something like 'bitch', as he made the world slow down.

"…What kind of game?" The ancient thief smiled, showing some very white and jagged teeth and his eyes bright and shinning.

"Not a shadow game, just a bet between friends." Marik laughed, a deep chuckling cackle, mostly at the word 'friends'.

"Alright, why not? What are we betting with? Our lives? Victims?" The white haired teen shook his head.

"No, No. Just for the benefit of the win." Marik raised his eyebrow.

"That is unlike you…usually you like to get something when you win."

"Well, maybe I'm having a change of heart…" Both teens snickered.

"What's the game?" Marik asked, standing on his feet, and crossing his arms patiently with ears open.

"Well, the game goes-" Abruptly he fell, legs suddenly unable to hold his weight, and his head slammed against the floor painfully. Marik started with disbelief down at the sudden appearance of another white haired boy, pinning TombRobber's hands down with both his hands, and sitting on his mid-section, with browns eyes staring into brown eyes.

"I've come to settle the score." Said Bakura very seriously, staring his double straight in the eyes showing no fear. TombRobber was taken off guard, and staring at him stunned on the floor, slowly nodding and noticing the great pressure being applied to his wrists. Marik didn't move, he watched with interest. TombRobber looked angrily at him, eyes flashing at his not so weak half and Marik.

"Well? Get him off me Marik!" Marik looked, purple eyes mocking, and shook his head.

"You were the one complaining of having nothing to do…I do not interfere with your business." And with that, he sat down, in Indian position, and watched the game unravel.

"Now listen to me, Spirit." TombRobber turned back to Bakura, irritated, and snarled.

"What do you want?!" 

"Play a game with me. If you win, you can have _all_ of the ring and my body and soul," TombRobber grinned.

"And if you should win?" 

"If I win, you then give me the entire ring, _and_ you free Malik." TombRobber thought about it, eyes looking up above his head, and at the sudden change of expression on Marik's face. After a moment, he grinned and nodded.

"You've got yourself a deal."

~          ~          ~

"You've been out numbered! Let go of her or feel our wrath!" Secacah said, pressing the knife into Kakra's skin, causing some blood to slowly drip down the blade and slip down her skin. Kakra's golden eyes widened, and she clenched her teeth, rage flaring, as she looked at Ann straight in the face.

"Damn you." Calendae beamed, looking at the faces of the crowd, grin widening. She turned to Ann, full of pride her eyes sparkled like rays of sunlight, and turned to Kakra triumphantly.

"You have lost. Kakra, give up!"

"HI GUYS!" A new voice suddenly shouted into the air, and everyone turned to four boys standing on a hill side to the right of the crowd. Bill, Brian, Yami, and Kyle were standing on the top of it, looking down at the scene occurring, Bill waving to everyone, and Kyle, Brian, and Yami gawking. All the daydreams looked up at them.

"HI BILL!" They all shouted in response. Ann hung there looking every confused as they slowly came down the side of the hill, Bill in the lead and running, then Yami just walking, then Kyle and Brian looking perplexed by the crowd.

"Excuse me, pardon me, coming through, make way!" The group shifted restlessly, some people grumbled, annoyed, and finally the four were in the front of the scene looking at Kakra and Ann.

"What is this?! Does this look like a welcoming committee to you?!" Ann said angrily. Bill blinked.

"No, it just looks like you need a spot of help…"

"I think I got enough, Bill." Bill looked around at all the female faces glaring at him, making the four of them huddle together; it is not smart to be in an angry mob of women. Bill ignored that comment, looked at Kakra, now starting to sweat, and eyes darting.

"You know, they _can_ kill you in here…if they did, you'd be a vegetable." Kakra glowered at him, fingers twitching, and a little more than nervous.

"Think about it…you'd never see TombRobber again…" Every single daydream groaned at the sound of that, startling all the people born in reality except Ann. Okay, so they were mostly everything she wasn't. 

            The woman with the gun, Ann thought her name was Kalle, snorted with annoyance.

"Somebody shut him up." Another woman stepped forward, with flaming crimson eyes and raven black hair, spreading out her fingers, and flicking them in odd ways.

"With pleasure." Suddenly ropes sprung from smoke and wrapped quickly around Bill, acting like a boa constrictor, and rapping his mid-section, to his shoulders, to his feet, and tied a quadruple knot behind his ankles. Another twist of the thumb and he had a large red cloth stuffed in his mouth and tied around the back of his head. The women then carefully took one finger and pushed him a little, making him flop to the floor with a small thud, before wiping her hands off on her knees.

"There, now, please continue." Ann looked at Yami just staring in shock. Now, a little embarrassed, she spoke.

"Um, excuse me…" All eyes of many hues adverted respectfully to her, and about half the crowd started kneeling, making Ann blush.

"Oh due cut it out…everybody stand up." People started rising. 

"Okay, I'm only going to say this once, Kakra, let go of me and get out…we'll fight out there, one on one, fair and square…deal?" Kakra seemed unbelieving a moment, but that fact changed as she saw Ann's face reflected she was completely serious, and she slowly took her sword down, as the jet-black knife, and Ann signaled Secacah to put the knife down, and she obeyed.

            When Ann gestured, everyone backed off, and created a path, surprising not only herself, but her friends. She could tell from the look on Yami's face he was impressed, and told two of her best warriors to escort Kakra to the door and come back, make sure she leaves through the daydream door, __and__ the mind door. And with that the three were off, leaving Ann to deal with the crowd.

"I'm not sure what I'm supposed to say," She began, nervously looking over the stern faces flocking around her so closely. 

"I know I should be grateful, I'm which, I can not repay you, and I might suppose this may even be good-bye." She glanced at the direction Kakra had left in.

"But, it's been fun guys. Thanks for everything…" 

"We thank you. You gave us life inside your mind…" the women with the bow said loudly to be heard. That was sort of an odd thing to hear coming from a person, and Ann wasn't quite sure how to react.

"We can help you, on the out-side, with some techniquess…" The magician said, flicking some raven-hair out of her pale face. Ann smiled, but shook her head.

"No, I'm sorry, you only know what I know or what I've made up, and that wouldn't help me on the outside." Bill squirmed on the ground, rolling into her feet and trying to talk through the gag.

"Um…I think you can ungag him not…" The magician smiled, and pulled her sleeves back.

"Certainly, allow me…" She twisted her middle finger about her index, causing the ropes and gag to puff into a ball of smoke, leaving Bill blinking and hauling himself to his feet in moments.

"You've _got_ to teach me how to do that!" The girls ignored that comment.

"What did you want to say?" Ann asked.

"Oh, that, well…Ammon said, when he needed me to make the house, that magic was very simple for us. Usually, you'd need a lot of supplies if you were in your original world, _but_ we're in a different reality, and we can basically just wish for something." Ann stared at him for a bit.

"Are you telling me that I didn't have to run around, get sent to the hospital, run around some more, all because you didn't tell me this?! I could kill you right now." Bill grinned.

"You'll have to kill me later…no, you couldn't before because you've always believed all of this was real off the bat, in our world, in this world, that none of it was ever made up. Personally, you have more power than me…lucky son of a-"

"Get on with it, Bill."

"Oh, yeah, well, I had to figure out that the place was real before I would wish for anything. If you want something enough, you can get it. Basically you did it when Kaiba's building was down the street from where we where that day after the hospital, you just didn't know about it. Or even when the door wasn't holding and Yami and Kaiba couldn't hold it, you actually sealed it shut. Get the picture?" Ann nodded, even though that was easier said that actually done. Bill seemed to notice this.

"Don't worry, you'll know how when it comes to it…come on, we better get this over with…" He started to the door, Yami, Brian, and Kyle following. Calendae held her back a moment with the rest of the crowd.

"Ann, I can't help you in that fight, so you know." Ann nodded.

"And another thing…I'm not sure I'll be around after it…and I wanted to say that…" 

"You don't need to say anything." Ann told her, feeling herself getting misty, good-byes were always over-rated. Calendae suddenly threw her arms around her and squeezed. Ann froze for a moment, and let herself give in by hugging back.

"I'm going to miss you."

"Don't worry about it; I know you'll find a way around the rules…" Ann told her, and smiled.

"And now, I have to do the equivalent of saving a world…funny isn't it? When you actually have to do something like that it is a lot harder than how it sounds… see you later, Calendae…I hope…I don't know what I hope… and as for the rest of you, wish me luck will yeah?" The smiled and waved, bidding them what she hoped wasn't a finally fare-well, and slowly turned to the big gapping white door way, leaving for the former reality.

BookDragon: "I'm going to finish this really, really soon, maybe two weeks. Not another month…as for right now, check out www.perfectduel.com. They got these awesome Yu-gi-oh (which I don't own) music videos!

Bill: "Review please!"


	29. Final Battle

Chapter 29: Final Battle

            As the light fizzed out around her, she wondered vaguely were she's end up. What would there be after this? After this huge battle, what ever the out come, would it be a happy ending? Was she really the cure for whatever poison Kakra and co were spreading?  She honestly didn't know. It seemed so black and white, with Yami and the crew since they were the good guys. Now, they all had their secrets, fears, and dark sides to struggle with.

            Light suddenly broke into a horizontal line, a deep golden crimson ray piercing the shadow engulfing the area around her. It's a wonder she had made it this far, still breathing and thinking, and it was something to be thankful for. She actually was happy for all those dark times, and what she has learned. Now, shifting through her thoughts, she realized she wouldn't have it any other way, and all heroes had their dark spots to over come, and, that was what had made them champions in the first place. The ray spread wider still, and grew in length, and twisted in a pure gold thread beacon, shinning forth and bringing her slowly to what was the real world. Suddenly she found herself smiling, only because there really was not such thing as the real world any more, before a sudden wave of pain struck her and with a sudden thought she would've rather been at home drinking hot coco. 

            Her eyes threw open into a dark world, except for a brilliant shinning light, on her arm, the bracelet, vibrating violently. Its shriek of warning. For only looking at it for seconds a dark shape flickered in front of her, and found herself slowly turning out of the way as a large metallic _sprong_ sound ringing loudly in her ears.

"DAMN!" Kakra's voice rung out and Ann found herself scrambling despite the cold pain running down her legs, she was far too busy trying to get away from the stream of curses and loud swipes echoing, before a hand grabbed her back and threw her back. She screwed her eyes shut and expected to feel something stab through her back, but found the bracelet vibrating instead as it met the tip of the blade, and propelled away with some twisted motion into Kakra's tan face.

            Ann looked at the bracelet curiously, and at Kakra lifting herself off the floor, using her blazing crimson lit sword as a cane a moment. When on her feet she pulled the sword from the concrete with a vibrating sound and watched Ann carefully, with her feet apart and blood running freely from her nose, and ready to leap at her. Ann parted her feet as well, and followed her lead as they began to circle.

"You know, you have no chance of winning this. You should have stayed in your mind." Kakra said, golden eyes burning fiercely through the blackness, vigilant hungry eyes. Ann thought about what she said.

"Yes, that does sound logical," Ann admitted, "but, I have found after these past few days that logic doesn't exist. There are no rules." Kakra lunged, sword thrusting, faster than Ann could dodge, almost reaching her if not for the green ball that zipped through and slammed into the tip of the blade, knocking her aim off and giving Ann enough time to get out of the way.

"YAHOO!" Bill's voice echoed through the gloom, with some other shouts. Ann looked in his direction, but couldn't see him. Actually, she couldn't see anyone now. Her heart slammed in rib cage as her head swung in directions, looking for where she had gone. Then a close voice sounded from everywhere at once, chuckling an evil sounding laugh.

"You forget. I am a magician, a powerful magician, and you can't contend with me." The laugh rung out louder with cackling that made Ann's skin crawl. She felt the bracelet tingling on her arm, creating large amounts of light that grew more and more by the second, expanding and covering more space. She remembered what Bill had said, and wondered if something so simple would work. If you wanted something enough, you can get it? Okay…

"Bracelet," She whispered, feeling stupid, "Please, I want something to protect myself, a spell, a weapon…anything?! Work!" It stayed silent on her arm, only growing in vivid rays and hurting her eyes. This was impossible. You need some kind of chant to do anything like that. If you want something enough, you can get it? How?

            Kakra charged out of the darkness, taking Ann by surprise from the back, and slashed down, causing a ripping hot flash of pain and a nightmare scream to erupt from her throat. Kakra took advantage of her helplessness and swung again, only to be met with the tip of a staff. Ammon looked down at her with fierce burning eyes, and swung the staff end into her middle, and sent her falling backwards.

"You ruined my life." He said calmly, looking at Kakra struggling to her feet.

"I was made marry you, and I would have dealt with it, but you ran off with that _thief_." Ammon approached her with swift strides, and pointed the end of his staff in her face.

"You wanted to kill me, so we wouldn't have to be wed, and you could take the family secret and your love. Give me one reason not to kill you…" Kakra lifted her eyes, grinning a wide smirk, and suddenly plunging a freshly drawn knife out of no where, straight into his stomach. His eyes widened with the sudden pain and surprise that he had fallen for the oldest trick in the book, faking a fall, as his staff fell from his constricting hands, and watched her raise to her feet and look of triumph blazing in her face. Her swift fingers shoved the blade in deeper, and made him fall backwards from the amount of force. The hilt of the blade was barely visible, and the rest had stuck out of his back before he had landed on it. 

"Is that a good enough reason for you, Ammon?" She sneered, and walked over his glazed eyes, and found Ann missing from her spot. Her sword beaming bright through the clouds of dark rose to attack position, attentive to the slightest sound and light, and poised for the kill.

            If you want something enough, you can have it? If you want something enough, you can have it? If you want something enough, you can have it? … I can't. I can't, I don't have that will…I'm going to die. She'll find me, and kill me on spot. It'll be long and painful, and she'll gloat, before the final shadow over takes my mind.  If you want something enough, you can have it?

            Kakra suddenly heard whispering.

"But wait…there is no logic." Grinning she crept closer, foot falls silent on the floor, eyes blazing, and blood pumping feverishly, being so close to achieving her goal.

"No logic. So, that makes sense on its own. But there's no logic. It's not even that…where am I going with this?" There, in the gloom, a bright light flickered mercilessly, and a dark figure stood tall.

"No, it's not the 'no logic'. Suppose he didn't say it right. Anyone who wants anything can get it, in some form. But that not what he meant." Kakra stood directly behind her, eyes wide, and mind screaming to strike while her pray was caught off guard. End the chase for once and all. She held the sword horizontal at her side, and building power into it, willing it to strike out on her command.

"Wait. When some one wants something, they have to let themselves have it. Suppose that's like getting it?"  Kakra stuck, silent and watched the blade go through and the blood splatter flying in directions. Ann's form hunched suddenly, too late to scream, swayed slowly from right to left, realizing what had happened, and soon started plummeting to the side, landing on the arm with the bracelet digging into her side.  Kakra walked over her, and sat down, Indian style, in front of her prey's line of vision, and waited for her to die.

            The world swum in Ann's sight, making her feel sick, but felt something foreign sticking through her, nested and moving with each labored breath. She felt the life oozing out of her, with every drop of blood collecting around her, staining her hands and shirt. Kakra suddenly entered her vision, smiling a peaceful smile and putting her hands on each check, leaning her head on her arms, and watched her carefully. Ann drooped her eyelids a little, but fought to keep them open, and struggled for a breath, but found her form violently coughing, and bringing up blood. She had struck one of her lungs. She wouldn't survive. Kakra giggled, knowing all a long before her attack.

"I told you. But would you listen?" Kakra said. Ann stared at her, blood running down the side of her lip, and completely silent. Kakra leaned forward.

"Do you feel it?" She whispered, "The cold blackness taking hold? The life exiting your body? I would say I know how it feels, but hey, I've never been dead." Ann didn't say anything, she actually went very still, and gasped a breath, and kept staring.

"Tell you what though, I'd hate be alone at my death, so I'll sit by you, and what you die. Please, take your time…" Ann took another hard breath, letting the blood flow freely, and blinked her eyes slowly, and starting to feel the icy hands of death start to take hold. Everything suddenly blurred, and she closed her eyes, slowly, letting it the blackness comes as a relief. She gave it all she had, and she was far more tired than she had ever felt before. She released her breath and took a sharp stab of pain in her chest as she drew in more oxygen.

"…You know…" Ann stated to Kakra's listening ears. "Death is not so bad…all through I still want to live…far too much to do before death…I can even feel my fingers…" She chuckled, and took a breath, finding it easier all of a sudden. She opened her eyes abruptly and took the wet blade between her fingers, feeling its sharp edges, left it, and let her hands travel to her back. Her sticky hands felt around, and found the handle, dry until she gripped it.

 "I want to live my life to old age. I have a lot I want to do." Ann said calmly, watching Kakra with bright eyes, as she watched her with the same vivid eyes, thinking she was about to die and these were her last words. Ann took the deepest breath in her whole life, expanding her lungs painfully and spoke.

"And…I would suppose I'll have to let myself have it." She ripped the sword suddenly from her, teeth clenched with hot pain streaming through her until the brightest light she had ever seen enveloped her, like a huge cloud, and slowly, she got to her feet, holding the sword close to her in the glowing sphere weaving together faster than any spell Kakra could use. Kakra watched with horrified eyes as Ann rose, normal brown eyes full of a new power.

"Its time," She said in her voice, now somehow greater than before, "Its time to end this." Ann raised the blade high, black against all of the brilliant light. For a moment she froze, until she brought it down hard, sailing to the ground, and smashing to pieces like glass.

BookDragon: "One more chapter. Hold on guys!"

Bill: "Please review."


	30. Epilogue

Chapter 30: Epilogue 

"You've done well." A familiar voice swum nimbly into her mind, clear and strong through the lingering darkness, smooth and dark sounding, the kind of tone you'd expect a shadow madden to carry. 

"And we are proud of you." Another voice rang in, with a sort of accent tune of a gun slinger.

"And," added a deep voice never heard before sung out, a male voice clear and husky, yet smooth and elegant, right into the blackness the most vivid and clearest of the three, "You must awake and greet your friends."

"ANN! WAKE UP!" Ann through her eyes open, and squinted at the huge amounts of lights excelling. She rose her hand, but found a huge pang of pain leap to it, making her wince, then blink as it suddenly subsided, and then blocked out the cloud of bright. She looked up into the bored and yet concerned faces of Brian and Kyle, both smiling at her awareness to the current reality.

"About time you woke up."

"Well, what do you expect? I can't sleep with you shouting in my ear. Where's everybody else?"

"They're taking care of Bakura and Malik. Turns out Bakura won a shadow game, if you can believe that, and Marik had other plans than letting go. It took a lot of physical persuasion to get him out." She didn't have a clue what they were talking about, but nodded her head and felt very much like laughing. She didn't instead; she returned a grin and looked thoughtfully around the room to find they were standing back in Bill's house. Funny how she was happy, yet disappointed to see the place. She opened her mouth to ask exactly what was going on with Bakura and Malik when someone slammed the door open and a ruffled haired and red faced Ammon walked into the room, shoulders hunched so it looked like he had no neck. Bill walked in busting with laughter and pointing at him, also red faced but not for the same reason.

"I can't believe it!" Bill gasped.

"The Pharaoh as lost his mind… 'it's just Queen's We Will Rock You' a complete waste of time- oh, you're awake, good afternoon to you, and you two," he suddenly said, turning his direction away before she could ask her question to Kyle and Brian's blank faces.

"Lessons, ten minutes, prepare your minds, oh, and get out, she needs her rest." Ammon walked out as fast as she walked in, saying a small good-bye, and leaving the four friends in the room.

"What's going on?" Ann finally asked. Brian and Kyle looked at each other, each smiling a smirk, and spoke with deep pride.

"Bill and you aren't the only ones with powers…" Brian began.

"Yeah, we've got em too, and why not? We have imaginations, too."

"But Ammon is getting all educational about it 'You need lessons and training combat to blah blah blah.'"

"Why? We can teach ourselves, why give teachers all the credit?" Brian finished boredly.

"And don't think you're getting out of it. Ammon insists you take lessons, too. I mean, you _were_ supposed to take 'em." Bill said, wagging his finger at her. Ann shrugged, not really caring about it right now.

"Hey, do you think I can go home? My parents probably think I'm dead right now."

"No they don't. I called them…I think a few days ago, said we were in Maine on vacation, asked if they didn't mind." Bill replied.

"Well obviously, you're the friend, when I get home they'll be pissed." Ann pointed out. Bill helplessly shrugged.

"Give yourself a day…hey; I got you a get well present." Bill added, beaming.

"More like you made one." 

"Well, it's the thought that counts, right?" Ann thought about it, and then nodded. Bill smiled and rolled up his sleeves, shaking his hands out, and then snapping his fingers. Out of a sudden puff a smoke a rectangular object flopped out of thin air and thumbed softly on the end of the bed. Ann looked curiously at it a moment, then saw the bright silver letters, exclaiming DELL.

"A laptop?"

"Well…yeah, I heard Kaiba broke your computer last year, and I figured I'd whip you up a good one…one that can get emails from the anime world…" Ann nodded her head and immediately took the laptop, turned it on, and started pushing buttons, making it her own.

            It took a day for her to recover, even though she was walking around saying she was okay before hand, but people told her to go back into her room and rest.  In that day she changed around her desk top, played solitaire, and questioned everyone you even went by her room. Yugi was unfortunately the first victim, and she asked what happened to Kakra's sword.

"Well, think of it as the Millennium Puzzle for a moment. It's smashed up, but she's still in there. The only way for her to return would be to forge the sword a new with all the original pieces. Ammon knows about this, and asked Isis, Shady, and Malik on their way back to Egypt to hide them in the tombs, no 24 hour guarding, Ammon already put a spell on them so only one with a pure heart can touch them, so that won't be a problem."

            Ann asked Joey how things were going with Marie when he came in to check on her, with a steaming cup of coco and a wide grin spreading on his face.

"Oh, we understand each other… she loves someone else, and that's fine with me…"

"What about Kaiba and Serenity?" Joey nearly dropped his coco on the floor.

"…well," He started through clenched teeth, "It seems Mr. Jack-ass explained that it was a whole mistake, and it's her that has the crush. It'll all blow over…hopefully." Ann was even uncomfortable with the idea of Joey and Kaiba being brother in laws to each other. Think of the horrible Christmas dinners were the whole family attends. There would be so much broke furniture. 

            When Ann 'fully recovered' the first thing she did was went home. It wasn't that bad of a telling off, she was only grounded for a month, which wasn't so bad. She wasn't grounded from the computer at least, and sometimes when she locked herself in her room, she would be 'indisposed' or 'sleeping' when she made visits. 

            When she came back they sometimes celebrated, holding huge parties where the police would sometimes show up, or just sitting on the couch watching horror videos. Ann noticed that Joey always sat next to Mai with these movies, and she'd notice Mai's hand 'slip' into Joeys on accident for several minutes. Ann didn't mind this, the two blondes were perfect for each other, and would probably live happily ever after, but Ann kept this to herself.

            Ammon's lessons were annoying but educational. She found out that Kyle was actually a big pyro, and was talented with fire tricks and tactics, while Brian was his opposite, and valued ice attacks over all others, and Ann would often find Kyle or Bill with ice cubes in their coffee or frozen limbs when he was pissed with them. Of course, Ammon would unfreeze them; and find out Kyle and Bill was no more responsible with their powers, often finding favorite shirts on fire, or buckets of water falling on people's heads. Once they had accidentally set Kaiba's trench coat ablaze and covered it up by saying it was still at the dry cleaners whenever he asked for it, while Bill struggled to make a new one. He went completely off when he found it burned in Bill's closet, and practically cashed them all over until Ammon fixed it. Of course, that was nothing compared to the time they changed Yugi's hair gel into Honey syrup. Yami was so pissed it made Kaiba scared.

            Calendae sometimes popped into her head, always scaring her. She'd say things were going fine with the big head honcho, and she was getting along great. She suggested to Ann that she should start writing stories. Ann tried her suggestion, and found many of them to be un-end-able, and had no where to go, even after weeks later, but she didn't let it bother her too much. 

            So the weeks past. It was some time later that Ann sat down at her desk at Bill's cabin, finding herself bored to death. She looked at the blinking curser boredly, and listened to Bill open her door and shut, as he came over with a steaming cup of hot coco and pulled up a chair, same expression on his face.

"What ever happened to Pegasus?" She asked him, suddenly curious, as she gazed at the blank page.

"He went home…I performed a ritual with Ammon…the 'seminars'. He was pretty pissed with the whole idea, but I told him we had to do it. So he did, and we had to have about thirty of them, before it worked. And he walked out the happiest man on the planet."

"What did you give him?"

"His old once dead bride…we performed the biggest trick, and denied death. It was surprisingly hard, and Ammon made me promise we'd never do it again."

"Will you?"

"Probably not." They didn't say anything for the longest time, and watched sadly at the blank page. Then after a while Bill chuckled.

"Hey, did you ever think about writing again?" Ann shook her head.

"No, I couldn't find anything interesting to write about, when ever I tried they'd end in blocks."

"Well, you know, all heroes have their stories. Maybe you should write a book about me. Bill's Adventure  you could call it. That sounds nice." Ann rolled her eyes, and pondered about it a moment.

"I don't think so, Bill… but how about this?" She pressed the tab key, and started typing very fast.

Day Dreams

She leaned against the window in boredom. The bus shook at all the bumps in the road making her head hurt and blurring her vision. She sighed, how boring it was to do the same thing everyday. The bus stopped with a jerk and a boy got on, his hair crayon brown with eyes to match. He saw her big brown hair and sat next to her, how could you miss it? Her tree bark brown eyes did not see him; they stared blankly out the window.  Her eyes were dull, telling him she was haft asleep. He greeted her.

"Hey Ann…" Ann hearing her name woke up and looked at him.

"Hi Bill… did you bring back the fanfic?"

"Hmm…good, needs humor though, why start here?"

"Well, you need a beginning…"

            She kept writing for several hours, typing, not caring about the spelling at the moment, and paused when they had to meet Bakura at the local coffee shop, he said he had wanted to have a cup of coffee with them and figure out what they wanted to do for Saturday. Ann was sure she'd have to tell him no, she had to finish two stories, and start a book about Secacah: Madam Shadow Traveler, and Kalle: Gunslinger of Selvana , and some others. She had one in her mind at that moment though, her first male hero traveling in her head, with a voice clear and husky, yet smooth and elegant. She knew he would probably be the first of many, and to her surprise, he had characteristics of an old childhood friend, dead now, but very alive in her head. He could be very happy-go-lucky, like Bill, very serious, like Yami and Ammon, strong-willed, like Mai, peace-loving, like Yugi and Tea and Serenity, a hot temper, like Joey, a shy side, like Bakura, a love for his family, like Kaiba and Mokuba, a funny sort of courage, like Tristan, a deep understanding, like Brian, and Kyle's slyness, mostly with remarks. She tapped the desk, thinking of a name for her new creation, and decided on Rune. Yes, Rune was good. He was her friends, all pieced together, into one man, forged in the fire of creation burning in her mind, as may others, and she was already liking him more and more, as her mind slipped into a dream-like state, and his tale began to unfold…

BookDragon: "That, my friends, is the end. You have all been wonderfully patient with me. Bill wants me to write a third book, but it looks distant, very distant. I hope you didn't mind the whole story writing thing, I thought that would be sort of neat to end with. So, again, THANK YOU for all your review and support. YOU ARE ALL WONDERFUL!"


End file.
